More than 10,000 people have been arrested across the US for protesting the police murder of George Floyd, and so many others. While Trump is in charge, protesters can expect maximum punishment for the crime of free speech.
No matter what else results from these protests, they have achieved one huge thing. They have made millions of white people feel guilty. It’s about time.
Since the massive civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s resulted in laws that stopped legal discrimination against black people, this nation has done nothing to make their lives any better. That’s more than 50 years of things just getting worse.
Even liberal administrations have pressed that boot down on black people’s necks. Bill Clinton, who supposedly loved black culture, passed a terrible crime bill and a terrible welfare bill that caused a spike in mass incarceration and hopeless poverty. Black communities suffered most.
Police have terrified, threatened, humiliated, tortured, and killed black people. Their power to do these things makes police racism especially destructive. But police are racist because our whole society is racist. White privilege has been a given for centuries. Ask Native Americans.
The first thing white people have to do is recognize how much damage our culture has done to people of color. This should be easy. Black people are telling us. They have been telling us right along. We just haven’t been listening.
Alice T4 