Us Caucasians and Our Judgments
KC, MO May 31, 2020
I went to a couple of Black Lives Matters rallies over the weekend.
Time out – for my caucasian friends who say, “Yeah, but all lives matter.” Please, just consider that all lives can’t matter if black lives don’t matter. BLM folks aren’t saying, “Black lives matter and white lives don’t matter.” No, they are merely saying, “Black lives matter.”
And they do.
Time in – I want to relay my experience from Sunday’s BLM gathering. Imagine my viewpoint as I set up on a small hill overlooking the scene…
-thousands of people
-all races and ages
-peacefully gathering
-listening to speeches that did nothing but build humanity up (though to be fair, I did miss some of it because of the amount of noise from the fountain and news choppers)
-beautiful day at one of Kansas City’s most historic fountains
OK, got that in your mind?
Now picture one white dude, bright green shirt, rifle over this shoulder walking through the crowd stirring up animosity.
I’m listening. Feeling. Watching.
Amoeba like, the organism of the crowd begins to move, one end of it separating and confronting the solitary gunman. The cell divides. A smaller cell isolates the virus. The vibe of that cell begins pulsating to a different type of energy. The entire organism is still working to keep things going in the right direction, but a separate cell has divided to contend with the intruder, chanting. “Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter.” Over and over.
The lone virus moves through the edges of the organism, and then I see out of the corner of my eye more movement. It’s the police. Except unlike I’ve ever seen the police.
Time out – I know and have known some policemen. Some of the guys I know are some of our society’s finest. I’m committed to not dehumanizing or scapegoating the policeman. However, I am asking you to reimagine with me, what it was I saw, and heard, and felt…
Time in – Do you see it? Police officers in full riot gear, military-style, lining up on the street. Three rows deep. Facing the crowd. I think the intention was right. I think the idea is to keep the crowd, now agitated by one lone virus, from chasing the virus down, or from self-imploding into violent behavior. But their stoic, militarized posture serves to elicit responses from an already agitated organism. I’m not an expert, but this whole approach needs to be reconsidered.
One guy. One gun. And suddenly everyone’s living at the edge of chaos.
Are the individuals who make up the organism responsible for their own choices as they face the police? Yes, of course. But, think about it, what if, all over the country and especially in Minneapolis, there were other versions of this one, lone white guy? What if there were 2 or 3? What if there were dozens? Does this absolve people of their individual choices? No.
But, given that it only takes one guy to stir up chaos, it’s more than reasonable to suggest that the specific violence manifesting itself in the fires and destruction we see around the country is NOT solely because non-whites are trouble makers.
-I’ve watched footage of caucasions covered, head to toe, (so as not to be found out to be white?) casually walk through city streets and break windows.
-I’ve witnessed the clips of African Americans stopping caucasions from defacing police cars while yelling, “They will blame us!”
-I’ve observed videos of caucasions looting upscale shoe stores.
So, us Caucasions sitting in a relatively safe suburban environment judging impoverished communities for their reaction when it’s almost for sure that “their reaction” is someone else’s reaction is entirely misguided. We literally have no idea who’s doing all the looting, rioting, and committing acts of violence right now.
Maybe more important, even if we did know, and even if we knew it was the people who made their homes in those communities, who are we to cast disparaging remarks their way?
A - Who are we, the people who enacted Bloody Sunday, or The Tulsa Massacre, or The Trail of Tears, or the murder of Emmit Til, or the lynching of Jesse Washington, or The Baptist Church bombing, or the Charleston Shooting, or the satanic response to the Little Rock Nine… or… sigh… on and on… who are we to shame people for looting, rioting, and putting innocent people at risk?
One of my African American friends posed a great question… what did we as a country do after 911? The answer, of course, is we bombed the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan. We didn’t even have the right intel. But we did it anyway.
Why is it that cacuasion led America can bomb another country out of anger, but the non-cacuasion led inner city can’t break windows out of anger?
B - Our task isn’t to judge the reaction; our task is to hold the people as they react. Our responsibility isn’t to keep safe distances; our responsibility is to go to the pain. Our calling isn’t to keep ourselves separate and pure; our calling is to interact, to get our hands dirty, to be willing to be with the people hurting. There are no answers to fix this problem; there are only answers to be with this problem. God doesn’t even fix us. God simply becomes one of us. (Of course, the people of the empire killed him while washing their hands in an attempt to distance themselves from the chaos.)
C - I love you, singular Caucasian reading this, but there is no separating “us” from the reaction of “them.” We live, as Dr. King said, “in an inescapable network of mutuality.” My caucasion friend reminds me that she doesn’t follow Dr. King, she follows Jesus. Ha, good one.
OK, Jesus didn’t say, “They will know you are my followers by the moral judgments you pronounce upon the people who are hurting.” He said, “They will know you are my followers by your love.”
Something profoundly nefarious is afoot. Yes, it’s obviously the one, lone white guy walking through a Black Lives Matter rally with a gun and an agenda.
Yes, there are non-caucasians with evil intentions.
And yes, it’s the millions of white Christians who cannot figure out that Jesus isn’t with those in power, living in safety, that is, the 99. He’s going after the one.
