This blog is long. I hope you will read to the end.
Racism is evil in all its forms, and not just the outright racism that leads to “under color of law” killings such as that of George Floyd, or the racial violence that caused the death of Ahmaud Arbery. It is also the sometimes subtle racism that stifles educational, employment, and voting opportunities for minorities.
In the current uprising against such racism, some are quick to try and dismiss it by focusing on wrongdoers who commit lawlessness such as looting and vandalism. These things are terrible and sometimes even tragic (for example, the story of 77-year-old retired St. Louis police captain David Dorn, murdered while trying to stop looters at a friend’s shop). Some others focus on all the police officers who are good people and would never even think of committing an act of racial hatred while risking their lives at a dangerous job to keep people safe, and there are certainly many. By themselves, these are important things to note and remember.
But this focus is a dodge, a logical fallacy, a way to avoid the problem at hand of systemic racism by saying “If you’re with the protestors, you’re also with the looters and vandals” or “If you’re with the protestors, you’re against police officers.” These are false equivalencies, but it gives those who do not wish to confront the situation an easy out. This is the same way that saying “all lives matter” in a vacuum could generically be a statement about human worth, but in reality is said as a weapon to minimize the suffering and outcry of the African-American community as expressed in the Black Lives Matter movement.
I have stood with African-Americans and other minorities in support of their rights, often for the right to self-defense, and I am proud to do it. However, I do not pretend this gives me some deeper understanding or some more sanctimonious high horse. I have never worried that an encounter with law-enforcement will leave me dead, and I have never had to instruct my children on how to avoid such a fate. That an entire community feels they must have such a conversation is a failing of society, one we must all work to overcome.
In law school something that stayed with me was a talk about John Rawls, a philosopher who spoke of creating a better society through the “veil of ignorance.” This is where one asks himself if he was the person making the rules, and he would know the consequences of the rules (who would be affected, hurt, advantaged or disadvantaged, etc…), but not know who he would be in terms of race, gender, wealth, etc…, what sort of society would he create? We often do not think of how things affect other people, and how they feel. It leads to a more unjust society, and sometimes leads to atrocities such as the murder of George Floyd. We must start listening more, and make a commitment to policy change for a better society. Those changes are many and detailed (and certainly include policing policy, though that is just one aspect), but listening and compassion have to be the start.
Part of listening also has to be to the peaceful protests. Stopping looters, vandals, and violent criminals, great. But the use of law enforcement or the military to stop peaceful political speech, even if loud and unsettling, or governmental physical attacks on journalists, is abhorrent to the First Amendment (not to mention human rights) and must be stopped immediately.
We must do better. Commit to listen. Commit to change.
