This is not a post with any picture or happy resolution or solution to any concern that has crossed my path. It is not a reflection that comes with a positive outlook for the next month or so. Maybe not even the next year.
Nevertheless, my hope is not daunted that people of goodwill may find their voices in the coming months and work more effectively toward a just and peaceful society. I simply expect that any positive change in that regard is going to come following more violence.
I am committing myself to remain a non-violent activist for transformative justice in our society. Transformation. Not reformation. And likely, deformation first. That, I think, is where the violence will lead. Deformation. Then transformation from the seeds that fall onto fertile soil for a healthy society built on true justice and access to sociopolitical and economic well-being.
The catalyst: Soon, very soon, another moment of reckoning will be upon us. As the lawyers conclude their arguments in the trial of Derek Chauvin, I cannot help but think of the OJ Simpson trial. I loosely paid attention to the details, and barely remember the “if it doesn’t fit you must acquit,” argument. I do remember the sudden outpouring of dismay and celebration that followed. There were clearly two peoples in this country and there was no question that we divided ourselves according to our skin color.
The current trial, and the events of the past year culminating several years of emerging data around police bias, police brutality, and the unexplainable, but clear differences in the rate of death in police custody have heightened the angst around the coming verdict. Coupled with the counter-movements of the white supremacists’ protests and open hostility and preparation for violence, I do not envision that the hours after the verdict will be anything peaceful.
The question is who will be marching in anger and who will be celebrating in joy and will they meet somewhere on the streets?
If you are an astute reader, you can see my own bias in the words above. I do not see how a jury hears the evidence I listened to and comes back with anything other than guilty. I believe that is the right verdict.
I am not expecting any change in the police training, or in race relations, or in daily life as a result of the verdict either way. Except for us coping with the violent backlash of our neighbors.
All healthy spirituality is rooted in some form of communal behavior that treats others in the way that one expects to be respected. I invite you to make a plan. Review your own sense of equal justice. What does your spirit tell you about goodness in the face of any human being, their rights, their possibilities, their dreams, their struggles? Learn about our racial history and the power of systemic racism in our lives. Consider that many, nearly innumerable stories of prejudice that have and continue to harm people of color yet do not affect the lives of white people. Wonder, discuss, behave in ways that demonstrate your desire to be counted as a willing participant in creating the new world of harmony and respect that will need to be built in the aftermath of societal disintegration. Commit to nonviolence even at the cost of your own security.
For white people like me, this means many things. It includes using our white privilege to upend the ways of our history in favor a new beginning that recognizes the full humanity of our Black neighbors and is willing to tilt the world in their favor to bring us all onto a level playing field. It means standing side-by-side, being willing to undergo the same policing and racism used to put down perceived threats that our Black neighbors have endured for just jogging down the street (Ahmaud), sleeping in your own bed (Breonna), or begging for your mother with your last breath under the knee of a police officer (George), or driving a newly purchased car whose tag is in the window (Daunte), or … … … … … and so much more.
Can we add your name to the list of change agents?
bevfriedlander 