(📸: Max Nesterak)
Last time I blogged on Hive about racism in America was just a day before the Minneapolis riot broke out. In the comment section (since deleted), a high ranking Hive-ian completely minimized the problem & basically defended police brutality —- it was sickening.
Now, triggered by the cold-blooded murder of George Floyd, where a police offer kneeled on his neck for 10 minutes —- riots are breaking out throughout America.
To be clear, I’m not condoning looting or setting public property on fire, including a police precinct. Also, I recognize that there might be opportunists who take advantage of these volatile situations. But, I don’t discount the righteous anger and pain fueling this, either.
Riots, like revolutions, don’t occur overnight, or in response to one incident. They are eruptions of pent up emotions. As Martin Luther King Jr. memorably said:
Riots are the language of the unheard.
400 years of inequality are behind this latest eruption, it has been a long time coming.
Arresting the officers who murdered an innocent black man would help defuse this situation & then admitting that systemic racism in the USA is a public health crisis.
Here’s a post making the rounds on social media that I thought to share in order to drive the point home for those who still refuse to understand the inequality and outrage:
I have privilege as a White person because I can do all of these things without thinking twice about it:
I can go jogging (#AmaudArbery).
I can relax in the comfort of my own home (#BothemSean and #AtatianaJefferson).
I can ask for help after being in a car crash (#JonathanFerrell and #RenishaMcBride).
I can have a cellphone (#StephonClark).
I can leave a party to get to safety (#JordanEdwards).
I can play loud music (#JordanDavis).
I can sell CD's (#AltonSterling).
I can sleep (#AiyanaJones)
I can walk from the corner store (#MikeBrown).
I can play cops and robbers (#TamirRice).
I can go to church (#Charleston9).
I can walk home with Skittles (#TrayvonMartin).
I can hold a hair brush while leaving my own bachelor party (#SeanBell).
I can party on New Years (#OscarGrant).
I can get a normal traffic ticket (#SandraBland).
I can lawfully carry a weapon (#PhilandoCastile).
I can break down on a public road with car problems (#CoreyJones).
I can shop at Walmart (#JohnCrawford) .
I can have a disabled vehicle (#TerrenceCrutcher).
I can read a book in my own car (#KeithScott).
I can be a 10yr old walking with our grandfather (#CliffordGlover).
I can decorate for a party (#ClaudeReese).
I can ask a cop a question (#RandyEvans).
I can cash a check in peace (#YvonneSmallwood).
I can take out my wallet (#AmadouDiallo).
I can run (#WalterScott).
I can breathe (#EricGarner).
I can live (#FreddieGray).
I can ask someone to put a leash on their dog when it is required in the public park we are in (#ChristianCooper).
I CAN BE ARRESTED WITHOUT THE FEAR OF BEING MURDERED. #GeorgeFloyd
White privilege is real. Take a minute to consider a Black person’s experience today.
Also, I believe in the power of poetry as another way to reach/soften people’s hearts:
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
“Negroes
Sweet and docile,
Meek, humble, and kind:
Beware the day
They change their mind."
—Langston Hughes
Meantime, as America burns, the hateful and Donald Trump continues to pour gasoline & incite violence on Twitter —where a tweet of his was recently censored & a CNN reporter Omar Jimenez was arrested and then released with an apology — just for doing his job & covering the riots, while being black!
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yes, exactly.