George Floyd
Like so many people around the world this last week, I’ve been watching the reactions of people and politicians to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And like so many, I am appalled that it has taken his incredibly graphic and public death to illicit any kind of response at all.
I write this post to put order and give voice to some of my thoughts and feelings in the wake of this public tragedy. I feel it is important to convey some level of solidarity with those who are the focus of such injustice, intolerance, and racism.
This is a struggle that involves races, genders, cultures, religions, and abilities. George Floyd’s death at the hands of police has put our attention on racism against black people, which is insidious and widespread. But our prejudices are not so particular … any difference to being white and being male too often fall into the crosshairs of intolerance.
People of colour, women, indigenous people, differing religions, new immigrants, the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, all endure a system that is built to overlook them at best, and actively mistreat, injure, or kill them at worst.
It is apparent that the ‘system’ cannot change itself. It’s been 65 years since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man (1956 Interview with Rosa Parks), and so when we see George Floyd die under the knee of a white police officer in 2020, we ask ourselves ‘how much has really changed … shouldn’t we have made more progress by now’? Why is racism even a possibility today?
If we look to an older struggle, the fight for women’s equality, we begin to sense that the changes we are trying to invoke are taking a long time … time measured in generations. More than 100 years ago, women’s rights were recognized, and yet we still routinely ‘forget’ half of the human population in everything from healthcare to education to public policy. (To learn more, read Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez)
If there’s one thing I’ve come to realize more clearly in the past few weeks, it is that those elected to represent us cannot change the system on their own. They struggle with knowing where change is needed, whether it is supported, or how far they can go … so they have to look to us to lead them. It is the demand from citizens for change that drives how quickly that change will occur and whether politicians will stay focused on it.
I recently had the opportunity to listen to a conversation with former President Obama, exploring specific changes to policing needed for systemic change. One quote from President Obama stood out to me, because it points to the critical role of both citizens and those we elect in bringing about change:
“I’ve been hearing a little bit of chatter in the internet about voting versus protest, politics and participation versus civil disobedience and direction action.
This is not an either/or, this is a both/and.
To bring about real change, we both have to highlight a problem and make people in power uncomfortable, but we also have to translate that into practical solutions and laws…”
(For more, see Highlights from a Conversation with President Obama about Reimagining Policing)
Each of us has the potential to create positive change, to make a difference, to build people up. Here’s how I think we can do it:
Speak up
Our voices matter. Too often, good people sit quiet, idle, and unaware as injustice happens. When we see injustice or inequality, we need to speak up. We have to shine a light on each intolerance, each bias, each inequality, so that we can learn a new way to think and act. And it won’t be easy. Especially when we may hear and see it from our friends or our colleagues.
Be heard
Whatever we do, we NEED to do it TOGETHER. We cannot build something new or repair what we have without including the people whose perspectives and experience are affected by what we do. Not token participation. Not having an “opportunity to provide feedback”. Real participation … with real deliberation of the issues. A conversation where each voice can have an impact.
Doing it together means voting and running for office. It means showing up at public forums and meetings to be heard. It means insisting that our public processes that are broadly inclusive, transparent, and allow for real dialogue and influence. And, as President Obama points out, it sometimes means peaceful protest.
Persevere
Many have said that these changes will not happen overnight. Our history has shown us how long these struggles can last. But, here’s my question: Why not? Why can’t we go faster? If the change we need is not coming fast enough, then the message isn’t loud enough. We must persevere, repeating the message over and over until we see the change take hold.
Remember
The price of this change is high, as we have seen in the past weeks, months, and years. We must remember those who have fallen on the path to a new future. Remember George Floyd.
I heard the following poem, by Clint Smith, on a recent episode of the Ted Radio Hour (Clint Smith Reflects on this Moment). It resonated with me and I thought I would end with it here.
By Clint Smith
all I hear is the wind slapping against the gravestones
of those who did not make it, those who did not
survive to see the confetti fall from the sky, those who
did not live to watch the parade roll down the street.
I have grown accustomed to a lifetime of aphorisms
meant to assuage my fears, pithy sayings meant to
convey that everything ends up fine in the end. There is no
solace in rearranging language to make a different word
tell the same lie. Sometimes the moral arc of the universe
does not bend in a direction that will comfort us.
Sometimes it bends in ways we don’t expect & there are
people who fall off in the process. Please, dear reader,
do not say I am hopeless, I believe there is a better future
to fight for, I simply accept the possibility that I may not
live to see it. I have grown weary of telling myself lies
that I might one day begin to believe. We are not all left
standing after the war has ended. Some of us have
become ghosts by the time the dust has settled.
