I don't know if anybody wants my thoughts on the events in Dallas last night, or on the last in the endless series of shootings of unarmed black men by authorities, but here they are:
First: Violence is not a tool for progress. Violence is a tool that is of sole benefit to the power structure. It is a tool that those in power can use with impunity, and when wielded by those without power, it grants the power-structure the only rationale it needs for continued oppression.
Second: This country is still over 60% white and we white people have a special ability because of that: We get to be seen as individuals.
Nobody has to remind us that when a white person kills people that that person is unbalanced and wrong, not a representative sample of our race. When a white person is the victim of a newsworthy crime, the majority of this country doesn't need to have their name repeated endlessly in order to humanize them, in order for us to empathize.
There's a reason we know Eric Garner's name. Tamir Rice, the seemingly endless list of household names that make up the BLM roster of the fallen. That reason is because the majority of this country has difficulty humanizing black people without being forced to think of them as individuals. The names aren’t just repeated for their sakes.
The names are repeated for ours.
Third: When 9 people were gunned down because of their race last June, no major newspaper warned of a coming race war. No nationally recognized politician called for armed reaction. There are scores of blacks harassed and killed for their race every year. Many fewer white people suffer that same reality. But because us white people have trouble seeing blacks as individuals, when a black person commits a horrendous and despicable crime against good people who were just trying to do their jobs, many of us have trouble seeing it as an individual act -- instead it becomes a massive, pervasive threat.
This is so very wrong.
The answer to all of this isn't more fear or hatred. It's not locked doors, separation, mistrust and more guns. It's block parties. It's integration. It's striking up conversations in line at the store. It's talking at the bus stop. It's being the helper. It's acting on the often-hollow words about us all being Americans, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Here's my pledge: I will live an integrated life. I will see individuals and us, not me and them. I will approach the world at large with love.
I love you all.