It’s been a depressing week of headlines about white people reporting black people to the police for existing in a place white people apparently don’t think they belong. While any week under this administration is depressing, this is about Americans hating Americans for no reason beyond skin color. Is this really who we are?
The current administration has given its blessing to racists and haters. Neo-nazis are marching in our streets in front of the aging eyes of the generation that fought to defeat them. Racists are running for office while openly avowing discrimination and hate as their platforms. Immigrants are being threatened in every way possible. That blame can be squarely placed at the tiny feet and hands of the POS currently sullying the White House.
But that didn’t mean Americans had to join in his hate-filled narrative. We could have risen above it. We could have tried to be better than he thinks we are. But instead, we called the police because three black women were checking out of an AirBnB where they had been staying for three days in a pretty white neighborhood. Or we called the police because a tired graduate student fell asleep in the common room. Or, god forbid, black women were seen on a golf course and they weren’t there to clean. And the cops play right along. Arrest those guys in Starbucks. If they’re black, they’re guilty.
Really? Is this really who we are? Because we could have also chosen to be better people and not jumped on the racist bandwagon that POS is so happy to lead.
I spent 28 years in an Inupiat Eskimo community. They were brown people to my white. They were also loving and caring and compassionate and all those things we think of as wonderful human qualities. They also had sadness and pain and grief in their lives. They were exactly like white people or red people or green people in their love of family, culture and friends. They love to laugh while often having way too many reasons to cry. In essence, except for skin color, they are just like all the rest of us on this planet. Color is truly just skin deep. Beyond that point, we are all alike in what we dream for our future, what we hope for our children and what we want from our lives.
I find myself wondering if any of these racists and neo-nazis would turn down a transplant from a person of color if that could save their lives? I wonder how deep the differences would be then? Would their friends shun that person because now they are part black or Asian? Think about it.