I Just Do Not Understand... Maybe I Shouldn't

I may be repeating myself but it bears repeating...

We've all seen the news reports. Black persons dying in custody or being shot or injured by police officers. The Black Lives Matter movement (#BlackLivesMatter) interrupting political rallies or matching in the streets. The response of All Lives Matter only serving to upset those trying to make a point with Black Lives Matter. I am appalled by what I am seeing, horrified even. But the really unnerving thing is: I really do not understand.

I do not understand why after all this time, this nation is still struggling with and denying racial prejudice. Why can't we move beyond this stupid - apparently ingrained - dislike/hatred/fear of anyone who looks/acts/believes differently than "we" do?

Toddlers do not come with built-in hate of someone with a different skin color. They seem fascinated by it at first then rapidly get over it and move to playing and giggling. They roughest thing they get into is that-toy-is-mine struggles. So basically we're born selfish but not prejudice.

We/they polarization occurs everywhere; in the workplace between management and non-management; in schools between teachers and students... pretty much everywhere BUT when it contains a racial component it can get deadly.

People are marching in Chicago today protesting the murder of a young person who while he did have a knife was not charging or threatening anyone by the looks of the video footage. It might be one thing if we were dealing with a rookie cop and the person was waving the knife around in a threatening manner and the cop panicked. Still in no way excusable but I could maybe sort of understand it. Not so here. The cop has been charged with murder and rightly so it seems to me. The young person who is now dead was shot 16 times, most of which while he was already down. The first shot (it seems from the video) took the him down, the cop then emptied his weapon into the young man while he was on the ground. It is situations like that the word "overkill" fits perfectly.

As often is the case (or so it seems), the cop is white, the dead person is black.

Every day it seems there's a new report, a new death or serious injury. As of November 16th 883 fatal shootings by law enforcement had occurred in the U.S. another 47 died after being hit with an officer's Taser, 33 by being struck with a officer's vehicle and another 36 died in custody according to a database compiled and maintained by The Guardian. This makes 1,000 people dying via police involvement of some sort. And blacks were more than twice as likely to be the victims according to this data. That said, other research has stated that more whites than blacks die at the hands of police/in custody. But there are fewer of those studies which probably speaks to researcher bias. HOWEVER, the case in Chicago is shocking in its brutality.

This doesn't count death or serious injury by non-law enforcement against blacks. It doesn't count death or serious injury by blacks on blacks. It doesn't count the nine (9) year old child lured into an alley and murdered by idiots who had an issue with his father over some alleged gang-related matter. Used to be, they say, that families were off limits in gang disputes. Apparently not any more. Chicago is also protesting that sad death.

We have issues here too in small city Ohio. We have children shooting children - typically black on black violence. And we have protests and concerns over police targeting the black community. The one major incident of a few years ago was cleared as a justified shooting but a young woman died and the child in her arms was injured. Rightfully so protests were held. This was before Black Lives Matter. 

I didn't grow up with black people in my neighborhood, I can't claim some insight through shared experience. The closest I can come is having been raised by a single mother and my grandmother. This is all too common in households of blacks statistically speaking. Some like to blame the absence of the father in the home for how rough some teenagers turn out to be. I personally think that is crap but that is a whole other blog post. 

I now live in a great neighborhood that contains black people as my neighbors. I confess I don't know them well and that is a mistake on my part. I was supposed to have a great friend who just happened to be black as my roommate sophomore year of college but she ended up transferring out. I can't say "some of my best friends are black". So no, I don't have some magic understanding of people who grew up in different situations than I did, who have experienced being followed in stores as teenagers just because they had dark skin, or have been pulled over for driving while black no matter if they are a teenager or a respected physician or even a senator who will one day be POTUS .... I will never experience these things. I'm grateful for that BUT appalled that anyone in the 21st Century has to experience these things no matter what color they are. That today 150 years after the end of the Civil War there are those in this country who still look askance at black people, still consider them as somehow less than human, still assume the worst. There is NO excuse for that, none. 

In 1950, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) issued a statement asserting that all humans belong to the same species and that "race" is not a biological reality but a myth. Race doesn't matter because there is no such thing as race. In 1950! 65 years ago!!! Based on science BEFORE THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT .... but apparently you can't convince some people. Just like you can't cure stupid I suppose.

I fully realize that most whites aren't racist, that most blacks aren't bad people and that police officers are good people doing a really hard, thankless job. That's not the point. 

The point is all the hate which appears to be fueled by social media. Whether it is directed at black people, at white people, at Hispanic people, at the police, at Syrian refugees... there is too much hate. It is so damned easy to sit behind the "wall" of the Internet and spew hatred, threaten violence, engage in fear-mongering and so forth. You don't have to look someone in the eye and own what you are doing/saying. And the (I hope) unintended consequence is that you empower some idiot who is not afraid to take action on those words. Who will look a person in the eye, load a gun, construct a bomb and kill someone. Maybe widespread access to affordable Internet isn't the great, educational and fun thing we all expected it to be.... maybe all it has done is make it far too easy to promulgate hate.