I was not raised to be racist - never heard my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or any family say something racist in all the years I was growing up. But I also grew up in a very white world due to geography rather than class.
My older sister is 66 and has been a liberal all her life. But she is married to a 76 year old man who isn't and likes to watch Fox. She doesn't watch much of it because she doesn't watch much TV but she hears it.
We have had several conversations about Ferguson, Eric Garner etc over the last couple of weeks and she knows of my support for the black community. I sent her the link to the Washington Post article on the way the governments of St. Louis county prey on the black population back when it was published and have told her about it and other things she has not been aware of.
Today I mentioned the Facebook meme where someone had taken the picture of a young black man holding a sign saying "No mother should have to fear for her son's life every time he leaves home" and photoshopped it to say "No mother should have to fear for her son's life every time he robs a store". She then told me how it has been ugly on both sides, she doesn't approve of looting and burning, most people on both sides have not taken the high ground, etc. I listened. I did.
I then told her that a nurse wanted to care for Mike Brown and wasn't allowed to, that EMTs were on the scene but stood next to Eric Garner and did nothing, that the cop who shot Akai Gurley spent 6.5 minutes texting his union rep before calling an ambulance or reporting the shooting, that Tamir Rice was not given any aid for over 4 minutes and still managed to live for 24 hours - could he have lived if he had gotten first aid? I said that the people who are chanting "Black Lives Matter" have got one hell of a point even if you give ALL of the benefit of the doubt in ALL of these tragedies to the cops. I said that Whites are the ones with the power and I've always believed that it is the one with power who has the ability and the responsibility to change things in any situation. She had to agree - how could she not?
So if you get in an argument over this stuff, hit them with this and then ask them if they believe that BlackLivesMatter to the police in this country. There is nothing whatsoever that can be said to justify this, nothing at all. This is an argument that truly has the potential to bust through some white privilege walls.
You could also send them this link:
http://tccmagazine.com/...