We've had a post Ferguson, and now we have a post Baltimore - terms that have entered our daily lexicon, as easily as a latte used to be considered exotic; but the recent death of yet another black man at the hands of white policeman makes me feel that the country must begin a conversation about race that has to end these atrocities.
The blame game is easy enough to play, but what is needed is a conversation that can begin with one another to help to change the sad dynamics of what is considered a Christian nation, but yet is acting anything but.that.
Probably one of the weakest arguments is that the deaths mean that the men have done something so horribly wrong that death was the only solution, and that the police had no other choice, but to kill them. In the not too distant past, this was used against gay men as they were bashed to death because they had supposedly made a pass at another man, and violence, even death, was the only recourse. It was called the gay defense argument, and an enlightened society later rejected it.
How long can some members of white society blame the victims? How long can we hear the keening of black mothers, aunts, sisters and grandmothers, how long America, how long?
But, yet for black men this standard is still with us and we see not only an embrasure of this sad folly, but in reaction, signs that say police lives matter. Has human life become a contest to see who can out rhetoric each other?
President Obama has reminded us, correctly, that these deaths are nothing new, perhaps to a younger generation; but the lynchings of the past are with us today, no longer limited to the grainy pictures of the history books; all that seems to be missing are the local white community coming to watch with picnic baskets; now it’s the internet and noshing, I suppose.
Dr. King’s dream seems to not have been deferred, but to have been cast aside as those entrusted with protecting us, are breaking us, beating us, and killing us, and then dismissing these acts as if they were lawful.
I remember the young immigrant in New York, in the not too distant past, whose body was riddled with bullets as he reached for his wallet. Is this policing, or is this legalized manslaughter?
Do black lives matter?
The media shows us the rioting, the misguided attempts, by some, under the guise of law-breaking, as protests; yet where are the cameras to show the poor schools with leaking roofs,and black children using a janitor’s closet as a classroom? Where are they as their parents live in substandard housing?
Where is the concern for the hopeless,as well as the homeless?
St. Paul wrote about the body of Christ when he said: “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Corinth. 12-v.13, NIV) Yet the separation between blacks and whites, despite the presence of President Obama in the White House, seems greater now than it did 50 years ago. Surely, the better angels of our nature can begin to tackle this deep societal problem in earnest.
What role can each of us play, no matter how small to help America to live up to its founding ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
America as a nation must take a hard look at the systemic problems in its police departments, and eliminate the policies, both written and not written, that undermine the respect for human lives, because black lives do matter. Let us begin anew.
