Black Lives Matter
Our country has exploded into protest over the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, filmed by a 17 year old girl, who watched as the officer knelt on Mr. Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, while Floyd pleaded for breath and his mother. 2 minutes and 53 seconds of that occurred after he had lost consciousness. Protests started last week in Minneapolis, at turns peaceful and violent, and have spread nationwide. Protests have taken place in all 50 states, and around the world this week. Two nights ago, the President of the United States, who continues to incite violence rather than unite a torn country, had peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets so he could walk to St. Johns Church and awkwardly hold a book he's never read for a photo op. In addition to increasing police brutality and a militarized federal response, journalists are being arrested and assaulted by police during these protests in plain sight of cameras, continuing the assault against the freedom of the press. All of this has galvanized protesters, who have increased in number for peaceful protests by the day.
A social studies chapter indeed. Whole books will be written about this. Will they talk about the moment our great experiment with democracy failed, or how we came together as a nation to address the continued systemic racism and police brutality that oppress Blacks on a daily basis? How will we use our white privilege to drive change?
I've never watched television news with the Monk in the room. I usually read heavily and occasionally turn it on after bedtime, so she won't be exposed to all of the horrible in the world. But what a privilege that is. This beautiful little Black girl can't be more than a year or two older than she is, and she lives it. She knows what is on the line, and not because she saw it on the news. My heart breaks that there is no sheltering her from the ugliest part of our society.
So I've started trying to talk about what is going on here at home, in four-year old terms. We talked about different friends who have different skin color, and why they might be treated differently because of that. Why that is not ever okay, and how we have to stand up for anyone we see who is being treated unfairly. We spent time on Sunday chalking our driveway with the names of Black men and women killed by police and others in our white supremacist society. That probably seems like the whitest possible way to address what's going on. Chalking the driveway! With bright happy colors! But it gave us a way to show that Black Lives Matter to this house in a medium she understands. To say to the people of color in our neighborhood - we see you. To say to the racists in our neighborhood - we will not tolerate you.
I have not said anything about these events outside of my inner circle because I don't want to say the wrong thing. I'm not worried about what the white people think, but I haven't wanted to take away from the Black voices that need to be heard right now, and have been afraid of showing how much I still have to learn or ask them to help me understand, when it is not the job of people of color to teach us anything about their experience. So I say, I understand that I will never understand. However, I stand with you. I am committed to doing the work to educate myself and those around me to help unlearn the myriad elements of white supremacy culture, be an ally, and raise this child to be a part of the solution, not to perpetuate the same old problems.
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