As this is not going to be a book chapter, but merely a blog post, I want to address some very specific fears. I realize that by not being black, some people might consider me unqualified, or even out of line for expressing my views on what I see going on in America. Although I don't necessarily see it as courageous to do so, I am not going to let fear get in the way of saying what I think is important enough to be said.
Collin Kaepernick is once once again making headlines this week with his new endorsement from Nike. Once again we find ourselves mired in the same old discussions. It seems like we are almost spinning our wheels at this point. We need a shove to get out of the rut and moving forward again. But the slush is deep and the tires have lost their tread. But let's try, just for the heck of it. Maybe, if we can get this thing rocking back and forth, then we all push in one direction and bam, progress!
So, here's the shove... I think the biggest obstacle to this progress is fear, more specifically, fear within those who embrace and perpetuate the attitudes of a civil rights movement that has served its purpose. This is not my unique revelation. It is the opinion of Wall Street Journal contributor and Stanford University Fellow Shelby Steele. I have linked to an article of his that lays out his reasoning for believing that we are in a post-civil rights era, but I would like to talk about the underlying fear, that he says, prohibits us from moving forward. There are two parts, essentially - mistrust and guilt.
Mistrust comes mainly from those who identify as "the black community," whatever that is. I personally believe in individuals coming together for and due to different reasons, but there is no real "black community," just people who unite under a banner of black identity, which is essentially what leads to mistrust of those who do not (or in my case, cannot). If we have had a black president, then I must say that there is no limit to what a black person can achieve in this country, and thus the civil rights movement worked. We should be celebrating this fact, rolling out of the rut, but some need the rut because it's a safe place to be. Not very many serious car accidents involve cars that are sitting still. In other words, the fear of what it takes to move forward as a free person, one judged by their own actions is a scary proposition for many people. As Mr. Steel, a black man himself says in his article, "freedom snuck up on us." It's something new to the psyche of many black people, one that they cannot even accept as being legitimate - mistrust.
This brings up my specific problem with what Collin Kaepernick is doing, well, a couple problems. First of all, the singing of the National Anthem is a time during a sporting event when everybody comes together in unison as Americans and recognize that, despite our differences, it is being an American that unites us. The concerns of Black Lives Matter aren't the only concerns facing our country. So someone else, Sam Bradford perhaps, could protest the treatment of Native Americans. Someone else could protest the border wall, etc. The point is, that is NOT the time or place for ANY of that. Secondly, what C.K. is doing is actually counterproductive to his supposed agenda. If he thinks he is actually making things better by doing this then he is, in my opinion, sorely mistaken. What he is doing instead is watering the seeds of mistrust that have been planted in the minds of those who are already skeptical of the police. Unfortunately, the police are having to deal with a heightened mistrust, which could lead to more resistance, more aggression in return, and more shootings. I hope I am wrong. The only other outcome is an easing of police force which otherwise may have been used to subdue an offender. There was an officer in Chicago who refused to draw her weapon on a black man specifically out of this fear. He put her in the ICU and she nearly died. I spoke with an Uber driver in Chicago who was a police officer during the day and knew the female officer well. Three months after the incident she was still recovering.
The other component is the guilt that people have transferred onto themselves for things that they had nothing to do with. I will grant this point, the descendants of those who used slaves to advance their economic well-being have had an advantage that was ill-gotten. But time has passed. Enough time has passed that most big businesses are publicly owned, and the wealth that was accumulated over 150 years ago has since dissipated. Schools like Harvard for instance, lower admission standards for black and Hispanic applicants. In the spring of 2018, 15 percent of applications that were accepted for admission were from black students. According to Mr. Steele, if all students were judged equally, only 1% of black students would meet the admission criteria.
Who are we serving when we tell people that we are willing to give them a pass based on their skin color? We are being racist. We are perpetuating the problem that we are trying to solve. We are pulling ourselves back into the rut.
Instead, let's focus on courage. Courage not to blame other people. Instances of racism will continue, there's no doubt about it. It's a problem all over the world. But we can have the courage to accept this fact and judge people based on their individual character, not paint with a broad brush. We can't say that "black people" do this, or that "cops" do that. Taking ownership for our own situation takes courage. Blame is easy, but it's a lie. Don't fall victim to this and sell yourself or anyone else short.
Feel free to leave your comments! I will leave it here, for now, with a quote.
Deuteronomy 31:6 says it very well: "Be strong and of good courage, fear not nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." -KJV
https://www.wsj.com/articles/black-protest-has-lost-its-power-1515800438
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