Yesterday Barack Obama, and his predecessor, George W. Bush, spoke to the nation, and probably a good share of the world, about the shootings in Dallas when five policemen were killed. Both Presidents were eloquent about the divisions in our nation between people of differing skin color, and how that affects law enforcement, or the failure of it, and civility.
President Obama, especially, was eloquent about the plain fact that it is not a police vs. civilian division; that racism lies deep within all of us, and that all of us need to confront and overcome it: all of us.
Last night, on what we used to call a news channel, we listened to a commentator complain that the President was so one-sided in his comments, and that he wished he had been even-handed, and not so-against-the-police.
"Whaa, whaa?", we said. "Did he listen, at all? Can he not understand plain English?"
Well, of course he can. The problem is not grammar or syntax. The problem is deep into our convictions that the world is divided between good people (that's us) and bad people (that's the other guys). Or, as George W. Bush said, in a slightly different way, that we compare our own good intentions against other people's worst behavior.
There is not easy way to bridge that hardened gap. It is what racism is essentially about: we let the color of our skins become short-cut ways to indicate who is right and who is wrong, who is friendly and who is not, who is safe and who is dangerous, whom we want for neighbors and whom we do not.
"Black Lives Matter" is not a claim that other lives do not matter. It is a simple claim that the color of one's skin does not indicate that some people do not matter: if everybody's life does not matter, some people--maybe you, maybe me--does not matter. "Black Lives Matter" is a reminder that we have been acting as if Black lives did not matter, or did not matter as much.
But, as Obama reminded us, the corrosion of racism is so deep and common that often we do not even recognize it, especially when we think it doesn't apply to us, and even even when we think it does.
We have work to do; a lot of work to do.
President Obama, especially, was eloquent about the plain fact that it is not a police vs. civilian division; that racism lies deep within all of us, and that all of us need to confront and overcome it: all of us.
Last night, on what we used to call a news channel, we listened to a commentator complain that the President was so one-sided in his comments, and that he wished he had been even-handed, and not so-against-the-police.
"Whaa, whaa?", we said. "Did he listen, at all? Can he not understand plain English?"
Well, of course he can. The problem is not grammar or syntax. The problem is deep into our convictions that the world is divided between good people (that's us) and bad people (that's the other guys). Or, as George W. Bush said, in a slightly different way, that we compare our own good intentions against other people's worst behavior.
There is not easy way to bridge that hardened gap. It is what racism is essentially about: we let the color of our skins become short-cut ways to indicate who is right and who is wrong, who is friendly and who is not, who is safe and who is dangerous, whom we want for neighbors and whom we do not.
"Black Lives Matter" is not a claim that other lives do not matter. It is a simple claim that the color of one's skin does not indicate that some people do not matter: if everybody's life does not matter, some people--maybe you, maybe me--does not matter. "Black Lives Matter" is a reminder that we have been acting as if Black lives did not matter, or did not matter as much.
But, as Obama reminded us, the corrosion of racism is so deep and common that often we do not even recognize it, especially when we think it doesn't apply to us, and even even when we think it does.
We have work to do; a lot of work to do.
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