Keep Your Eye on the Prize

This is actually the most dangerous part of the rebellion that is going into its third week:

There has been a response to the horrific scene of another White man with a badge killing another Black man.

There has been the paroxysm of anger—and yes violence—over the response to the incident, because after all—this was the original view of the actions of Officer Chauvin and his band of killers on what was done to George Floyd.

Don’t forget that it took almost THREE MONTHS for our friends in Georgia to finally act on the execution of Ahmaud Arbery and while the Louisville Metro Council adopted legislation to prevent people from being murdered in their bed like Breonna Taylor, there’s still crickets about the officers responsible for her death being brought to justice.

So forgive me if I lean more toward the Dr. King quote that too many White folks ignore during situations like this, preferring memes about peaceful marches and ignoring the fact that police response to Dr. King’s marches was akin to what we’ve seen recently, except they also used fire hoses and police dogs.  

But why am I calling this the most dangerous part of the current situation?

Because minus the reaction in Atlanta, to yet another police killing of a Black man, the issue has gone from “sexy” to “boring”, which means people can both start ignoring it and changing the narrative.

What I mean is this: shouting (police and protestors), burning cars, clouds of tear gas, busted windows and people pouring out of stores with handfuls of whatever is eye catching. Just like the car accident on the side of the road—you can’t help but watch it.

Even in this modern world of communication, the old axiom –“If it bleeds, it leads”—is still the standard that most local newsrooms in America live by because noisy riots full of smoke, shouting and flash bangs are SEXY.

“People are busting up windows, torching cop cars—GET EVERY REPORTER AND CAMERA CREW WE HAVE DOWN THERE!!”

(And in the case of one Seattle TV station—don’t forget to send your private ARMED security detail with the reporter, because you never know….)

But on Friday, June 12, 60-THOUSAND SILENT MARCHERS filled the streets of Seattle, a sea of humanity that stretched for miles, protesting the continuing injustices perpetrated on Communities of Color in general and the Black Community in particular.

AND WHAT WAS THE RESPONSE TO THAT??

Did stations go live with the peaceful protest? And interrupt the soaps, Kelly Clarkson and Dr. Phil?

ARE YOU CRAZY?!?

So something that could potentially have as much impact as the smoke, fires and noise that TV stations went live with two weeks ago gets relegated to streaming platforms on TV websites this week.

Why? Because peaceful protest, no matter how impactful it might be, are BORING.

And boring is bad, which is why the most meaningful march in Seattle in a generation was relegated to cyberspace.

When situations like this start to become quiet—start to get boring—people (and you know who you are) start thinking: “maybe it wasn’t as bad as we were lead to believe.”

Worse yet, like a good magician that distracts the audience as they pull the rabbit out of the hat, people start districting you with minutiae—such as this little missive that is springing up on social media:

“This badge ran towards certain death as the Towers collapsed on 9-11.
This badge ran into the line of fire to save the people in the Pulse Night Club.
This badge sheltered thousands as bullets rained down from the Mandalay Hotel in Las Vegas.
This badge protected a BLM rally that left five officers dead in Dallas.
This badge ran into the Sandy Hook School to stop a school shooter.
This badge killed the Oregon District mass shooter in seconds.
This badge has done CPR on your drowned child.
This badge has fist fought the wife beater who left his spouse in a coma.
This badge has run into burning buildings to save the occupants.
This badge has been shot for simply existing.
This badge has waded through flood waters to rescue the elderly trapped on the roof.
This badge has intentionally crashed into the wrong way driver to protect innocent motorists.”

It has a few more stanzas—but you get the idea…

Or people start pulling homilies out of mothballs

And just like that, the conversation shifts from the painful one we MUST HAVE about fundamental reforms that need to take place not only in law enforcement, but in all of society, to “we just need to trim the few bad apples” and “we shouldn’t judge a group as a whole because of the act(s) of a single individual.”

It has come to my attention that these statements and memes only come out when:

A White person commits a heinous act (think Dylan Roof),

And when law enforcement are caught doing something unspeakable (like George Floyd, Tamir Rice, and THOUSANDS of other Black people). 

Add to that conversations about “anarchists” taking over police stations, and suddenly we’re not talking about George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, but about “lawlessness,” “why aren’t people respecting property?” and “why are people trying to erase history?”

Understand, I know right now, there are far too many of my White brothers and sisters who wish this would just go away because as I’ve discussed before, the conversations you need to have as part of the transformation that is coming are painful. But I beg you not to let your focus slip.

Just because the protest are quiet doesn’t mean they have stopped—they’ve just stopped being interesting to some of the messengers reporting on them. Stay focused; don’t be distracted by the rabbit coming out of the hat.

It’s not about the CHAZ (or CHOP). It’s not about not every cop is bad (even though I must say when a person of color commits a heinous act, it’s still pretty common for White people to assign blame to every member of that specific race…)

It’s about how we do right by George Floyd and preventing what happen to him from happening to another Black man.  

Pointing out the individuals who commit these acts and saying that they don’t represent all of a department or race is still a good thing, but we also must remember that it’s the current system they operate under that allowed these individuals to think they could lean on a man’s neck for almost 10 minutes and get away with it.

The changes that are coming must be systemic, and trying to say that it’s the individual and not the system that is at fault is what has lead us to the situation we find ourselves in right now. 

And that situation is this: I’m starting to become really concerned that some of you all are more worried about property, which at the end of the day can be cleaned up or replaced, and propriety (why can’t we achieve this in the way we were taught about in our history classes, Black people marched and it all got solved—the end) than the DEAD MAN who brought people into the streets and has some of you so scared you want to bring in the military.

Keep your eyes on the prize, because this is where we see if people are truly sincere about making a lasting change in our society, or if they’re looking for the rabbit to come out of the hat.

Until Next Time.