Pain

 

“It demonstrates the deep pain of American people of color in an age of one police killing after another,” I wrote in 2016 of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book Between the World and Me. How many more killings have occurred since then? More than I can count. (There appears to be a Washington Post data base of police killings that might answer that question,  but I’m afraid I’m not a subscriber, so I don’t have access.)

Last week we watched in horror the video of a policeman kneeling on a black man’s neck until he died—far longer than necessary to subdue him even if he had been resisting arrest as alleged, which he is definitely not doing in the nine minutes of the video. The huge outpouring of protest in the days that followed show that much of the country agrees with me that until we hold police responsible for their actions, we will not see an end to this racist violence. (Holding a policeman of color responsible for shooting a white woman does nothing to break the cycle.)
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I’m white. I can’t help that. But I can listen. And listen is what we are called to do in these days. In no way do I condone the the theft of TVs from Target or the trashing of local groceries and pharmacies, but I can hear the frustration that leads someone to pick up a brick and throw it through a window.
Read.
​Listen.
Hear with my heart, not formulating my own defense.
Look through God’s eyes of compassion, justice, and yes, wrath at evil.

Click here to read my 2016 thoughts on my own whiteness and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book.

I was impressed this week: 

• with the power of peaceful protest; 
• with the presence of so many whites at demonstrations, proclaiming that they too are concerned—even angry—that this kind of thing continues to go on; 
• with those who held back their fellow protesters from slipping over into violence; 
• with police and national guardsmen who spoke out, knelt down, and otherwise identified with the cause of justice;
• with the conciliatory voice of Minnesota Governor Walz who identified with the anger of protesters and invited them to be part of the solution;
• With Governor Walz’s invitation to legislators to bring practical proposals for real change as early as next week—proposals that both parties can agree upon; 
• And that finally charges have been brought.

May this be the tipping point, when all Americans acknowledge the need to deal with systemic racism. George Floyd was not a perfect person; he was flawed like I am. He has been called “a person of peace,” the sort God’s people could work with, who wanted to see real change in his community. I have no doubt he would be honored if his death led to such real change.