The ideal of black and white together is one of the noblest goals of decent Americans from different backgrounds working to overcome our nation’s long, intractable history of racial separation.
But within three days last week, blacks and whites in this country were drawn irrevocably together by incidents of sheer horror.
Each incident was inexcusable, although, sad to say, the first two have occurred far too often to be shocking any longer.
That would be police in Baton Rouge, La., pumping bullets into an unarmed black man on the ground and a black man dying on video while his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter watched after he was shot by police, who allegedly stopped him for a faulty taillight in a white St. Paul, Minn., suburb.
The third incident was shocking and terrifying for both blacks and whites. Police were patrolling a peaceful protest in Dallas over the first two incidents when shots were fired. The first instincts of police were to protect the protesters and hurry them toward cover.
It turned out police themselves were the targets of a hate-filled sniper. In the end, five police officers were killed and seven others and two civilians were wounded.
Every decent American, whatever their race, should feel sickened by each one of those inexcusable murders.
Not Just an Issue for Black Activists
The only good thing to come out of those three horrible days was to broaden the conversation to make it clear that the familiar repetition of police fatally shooting blacks in our streets isn’t just an issue for black activists.
It’s an issue for all of us. That’s why all those whites were joining their black and brown neighbors in large, multiracial community protests televised from across the country, including Dallas.
And it has to be an issue for anyone who supports community police officers, who, when they do the job we pay them to do, protect all of us.
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Recognizing that is a healthy improvement over right-wing demagogues, including some we know very well, denying there are any racial issues we need to worry about when black men are shot for such horrific crimes as non-functioning taillights or selling CDs without a license.
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, a right-wing African American, seemingly has another full-time job on Fox News, where he demonizes black activists for raising public awareness of the brazen racial disparities involved in police shootings.
The Black Lives Matter movement has improved police screening and training around the country, expanded the use of police body cameras and is initiating the very beginning of a national system of police accountability. For the first time in many departments, officers are being fired and even prosecuted for illegal use of lethal force.
Now Clarke and others who oppose such positive reforms are smearing legitimate protest for the deaths of Dallas police because the sniper turned out to be an angry black man.
They’ve convinced some whites it’s impolite even to mention racial disparities. Like the old beer commercial battle over whether Miller Lite “Tastes Great!” or is “Less Filling!,” whites who hear “Black Lives Matter!” are encouraged to shout back “All Lives Matter!”
That’s true, of course, but it also misses the point.
We’ve never had any need for slogans or banners in America declaring: “White Lives Matter!” White lives have always mattered far more in America than any other lives. Black and brown lives, not so much.
That basic rule is built directly into every vital public service in this country—education, health care, employment, housing, you name it. None of those are distributed equally. And, deep down, we all know who gets the best and who gets the worst.
And when we’re talking about getting the best or worst of policing from armed officers, the difference can be life or death.
Everyone feels a little tingle of fear when stopped by a traffic cop. But no white person in America ever feels his life is in danger. As we’ve all become aware of just how often deadly police shootings end black lives, it’s hard to believe any African American would not feel such fear.
We learned a couple of years ago that Milwaukee police were performing illegal anal searches for drugs after routine traffic stops in black neighborhoods. Did any white Milwaukeeans worry such crude sexual assaults by police would spread to white neighborhoods?
Of course not. Police would never do that to us. So why weren’t all of us outraged that police were doing it to others?
All Americans going about their everyday lives, even those with black skin and cars that might have bad taillights (or not, let’s be honest) have the same right to live free from deadly attacks as police officers of all races doing their legitimate, necessary jobs of protecting the equal rights of everyone.
We’re all in this together and deserve to return home safely to our own loved ones at the end of the day.
