Do Black Lives Matter – Really?

Before you react to that shocking headline, hear me out.

The nation is erupting to the senseless death in Minneapolis of George Floyd.  Riots are occurring in cities throughout the country.  Most people are incensed.  But what are they incensed about and why?

A friend on Facebook posted a question for us all to consider: “At what point did you become enraged enough to speak out?”  Was it when you first watched Colin Kaepernick in 2016 take a knee during a national anthem?  Or were you more disturbed by the act?  Was it when you watched George Floyd die before your eyes and under the knee of a policeman?  Or were you more affected as the riots began to burn? 

Kaepernick attempted to bring to the nation’s attention the problem that black people were dying at an alarming rate at the hands of the police.  He attempted to take a peaceful approach to bring attention to a serious problem.  Four years and 700 black lives later, another senseless death occurs; a death that should be considered to be an act of terrorism due to its racial overtones. 

To bring some statistics into the conversation please refer to this link that illustrates the deaths that have occurred at the hands of our policemen.  Remember as you review this page and find the number of black people killed to be less than whites, that blacks represent only about 12% of our total population.  There is also some interesting information on the mappingpoliceviolence.org website illustrating, among other things, that 99% of the killings by police from 2013 to 2019 have not resulted in the officers being charged with a crime.  Granted, police have a very difficult job that takes them into a lot of violent situations, but are they truly innocent of wrong doing in all of the deaths that occur?

But let’s turn to the riots. If you find yourself upset about the violence that is occurring in response to this killing, then I ask what you think should be done?  How much of this senselessness do we need to endure?  What steps can be taken to stop it?  Kaepernick’s peaceful approach did not work.  Years of “sensitivity training” of the police forces has not worked.  Are we supposed to simply stand by and allow this brutal and obviously racial situation to continue unabated?  What will it take to make a change?

As we contemplate the killing and the riots we also need to recognize the environment in which these events are happening.  We are just opening up the country from a fearful exposure to a killer virus; a virus that remains virulent and active.  As a result, unemployment figures over the last few months have skyrocketed to 20-30% levels.  In poor black communities the unemployment numbers for young black men are even historically much worse.  Hopelessness, fear, poverty, illness and then this; a black man strangled to death for all to see.  It seems to me this was dry tinder simply waiting for a spark.

So how do we respond?  What steps should be taken to calm the storm, return to our homes, repair the damage, and secure the future?  Will it help to bring justice down upon the killers in this situation?  Or will they be acquitted like so many others?  Will a calming rhetoric from our political leaders bring us a sense of healing and direction?  Or do we need to threaten harm, arrest and kill more often?  That seems to be the approach our President is taking.  “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”

As usual, I find little reassurance from the tweets of our President.  As always, it seems to me that he looks for ways to inflame a situation instead of provide assurance and calm.  A reassuring comment filled with “thoughts and prayers” would fall short but it would be significantly better than calling for more violence which is certainly not the answer.

I have no answers to this.  It is a grim situation, at best, but more likely an explosively time bomb whose fuse has already been lit.  I end this piece with the same question from my friend that inspired this writing: “At what point will we become enraged enough to speak out?”