Painting by Norman Rockwell
OK, so you say “This is it”. You have been angry in the past and have voiced strong opinion, but the death of George Floyd just switched something on. You have talked more about racism in America and have written the words “Black Lives Matter” on your blog and Facebook pages. Hell, maybe you even posted a sign in front of your nice suburban home.
Good.
And you’ve gone farther. Continue reading
Painting by Norman Rockwell
One of the big problems with racism in America is that a lot of people, white people, only think of it in extremes. They will admit that there are still some racist people around, but not a lot, except, possibly, in places like Mississippi. That is, except for people in Mississippi, who say Mississippi is not racist, maybe it exists elsewhere, not here. Not in America. I mean, sure, there are some Klansmen running around, but everyone hates them, right? I mean, I hate the KKK, so I can’t be racist. That is how people see it – if there are no extremes, there is no racism.
Uhm, no.
It is easy to find many types of racism at many levels.
At work there are those people who think they are well meaning but might say some insensitive things here and there, not realizing that it makes some of their team members feel unwanted. And then there is that hiring person who doesn’t realize that for some reason they call a person named James much quicker than Jamel, that they hire someone, who coincidentally is white, because they will fit in with the group better than the other candidate, who just happens to be black. Study after study shows this happens all of the time. It is the rule, not the exception. Continue reading
It happened again
How can a human do that?
Pain of the centuries
My hand fits nicely in yours
Bound by our humanity
Years ago they told us all is well
Humans judged by their character
Full equality for all
They said the world is fair
The battle was won
One family
United
In peace
Love
But
They lied
Still two worlds
One rule for “them”
Fear of the other
Blind eye turned to the truth
Indifference to suffering
A world of hate and division
They said it was over years ago
***
These joined poems were written for Colleen’s Poetry Challenge. This week was poet’s choice. I wrote a double-nonet and a tanka
Montrell Jackson recently said on Facebook that it was hard to be a black police officer in Baton Rouge. In uniform some of the people he was trying to serve hated him but out of uniform some of his coworkers saw him as a threat (source – BBC). Just a few days ago he also wrote, “These are trying times. Please don’t let hate infect your heart. This city MUST and WILL get better.” (source CNN) And, quoting CNN, ‘to all the protesters, officers, friends, family and neighbors in need of a hug or a prayer in Baton Rouge, he offered a promise: “I got you.”’ This was a good man and a good place to start healing between the black community and the police in a city still in shock over the shooting of Alton Sterling.
Montrell Jackson was gunned down by an angry young man who thought he was fighting a war against injustice.
A friend of mine attended a Black Lives matter protest in Manchester, NH. It was a peaceful event and the protesters and police chatted and shook hands. Off to the side there were several young white men carrying assault weapons. They were the only ones not smiling, not shaking hands, not being friendly. As the shooting in Dallas showed, the “Open Carry” folk don’t help, they actually make the problem worse if there is an active shooting incident. These people didn’t care. They were there to try to bully and intimidate black people. They were there because of their racism, though I bet you $1000 that none of them consider themselves as racist. Continue reading
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