White America Holds the Key towards Ending Racism

The events in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Monday shocked us all and once again started a conversation up again that we have had far too many times in our past and without any change. These events I mention, of course is the tragic murder of George Floyd by local police officers and the ensuing public outrage that occurred and continues to occur.

This conversation has taken place more times than I care to count and yet nothing has changed and that is because of how the conversation goes and who is having the conversation. It is one of the parts about this country that has remained the same year after year, no matter what else is happening or who is president, although, the current occupant and his racist rhetoric over the last four years has made it worse.

It goes something like this.

Police kill an unarmed black man, who is being compliant and pleading for his life in many cases.

A video is released.

Protests and riots take place.

No charges are filed.

No justice is served and nothing changes.

This is the conversation, this has been the conversation, and unless we speak up and demand justice then this will always be the conversation year after year, president after president, tragedy after tragedy.

The problem is that we white Americans are not speaking up and we must start doing that. We must be part of the solution in order to fix this problem and move on from this structural racism that has plagued our country and our communities for far too long.

George Floyd did not do anything to deserve to die other than one fatal mistake in America today and that thing is that the crime George like so many others before him committed were they were black. It is that simple, there is no other way to slice it as that is the way it goes in our country in these types of situations and the way it has gone for decades.

Being black is a crime these days and we as white privileged Americans must stand up and speak out against these tragedies. We have the power to put an end to this once and for all, we must be the voice for our brothers and sisters who are being murdered by law enforcement since nobody else seems to be willing or able to do so. The way things change are when the masses demand change and refuse to go on as things are, that is how we change the way that the conversation is going and say enough is enough.

There are many things in this country that need to change and each one of them requires the majority stand up and demand action and demand that things change. However, this problem here is one where the majority have been silent for far too long and because of that people like George Floyd continue to lose their lives as the officers who take their lives never serve a day in jail.

Racism does not go away until we white Americans demand that it go away, instead of looking the other way and pretending that it does not exist or that it is not a problem. It is a problem and we must acknowledge that it is here and that it is real. If we continue to pretend that the George Floyds, Freddie Grays, and Eric Garners of the world lives did not matter then racism and unjustified police killings will continue and the injustice will carry on.

WE must stand up and fight for them.

Racism and murder of black people by the police in America is a major problem in our country. It must be addressed on a mass level and called out whenever it pops up in order for us to solve this problem once and for all and get justice.

Just this morning as I am writing this article, the main officer involved in the George Floyd incident was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. This is a major step forward for justice for George and for the many who did not get that justice, but now there must be a conviction in the case, a case which was obviously murder of an innocent man like so many other innocent black Americans have lost their lives.

Another development in this case has been the behavior of the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Trump called for the “Thugs” to be dealt with and said “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” in response to the riots and looting in Minnesota yesterday. Now, of course we cannot have mass unrest and looting but for the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES to even mention in passing that American citizens should be shot by their very own government is concerning to say the least.

This statement by Trump is even more concerning being that just a week earlier he called lockdown protesters who showed up at the statehouse in Michigan with assault weapons “very fine people”. He calls unarmed poor black people looting in the middle of a pandemic where 25% of America is unemployed “Thugs” and said they should be shot but white people with high-powered weapons at a government building “Very fine people”.

Part of we white people calling out racism and saying enough is enough is for us to call out the racism of this president and his supporters once and for all and demand change at the top. We must call out Trump when he says racist things and as decent people, we must at last say that this is not the days of segregation and this is not the America that we want to live in, an America where racist statements by the leader of the free world are acceptable and innocent black Americans are killed in broad daylight.

Did Trump start this problem of racism and police killing black people in this country?

No, of course not. This is something that has transcended administrations, generations, and everything else. This is not something that Trump has started but it is something that he has allowed to continue and something that today he has a hand in. His racist rhetoric has not fanned the flames but rather it has added fuel to the fire and has emboldened racists across the country to commit murder, hate crimes, and so on.

We white Americans who are against racism hold the key to change the course of things in this country on this issue. We have the key to change the way that this conversation has gone for far too long and stand up and say no, not in my country, not anymore. It has happened to far too many innocent people and for far too long and it even goes beyond simply the police killing these folks, although that has happened quite a lot.

People like Trayvon Martin, James Byrd Jr, and most recently, Ahmaud Arbery have all been brutally killed by non-law enforcement racists who were driven by hate, that same hate that exists today in the highest offices and is spoken by some of the most prominent voices in our country. This problem of racism and hate crimes against every group of minorities in this nation has happened for far too long and it is up to us, the majority, to put a stop to it.

If we do not put a stop to it, then who will?

The president for sure will not. He is one of the ones who encourages it by the statements that he has made against not only black people but against others like Mexicans, Muslims, and so many others. He and those who support him promote events like what happened in Minneapolis and even when they do not actively promote it, their silence adds to the injustice and becomes part of the problem, rather than the solution.

The reason that racism continues is because white people allow it to continue and they do so by not speaking up. They (we) say, “That is sad, so awful” and then go on with their day and with their lives or they post in a Facebook chat room about how we must make sure “Black Lives Matter” and do nothing more to speak out or be part of the solution. The conversation must continue for things to change, we cannot just say something once and be done with it, but we must keep speaking and keep demanding change.

Things do not change on any issue by chance. They change by ACTION and the action that we need on this issue is great, it is constant, it is national, and it is fierce. We must say that George Floyd’s life mattered, Ahmaud Arbery’s life mattered, Philando Castile’s life mattered, Trayvon’s life mattered, Eric Garner’s life mattered and so many others life mattered.

We must continue to speak out and say that BLACK LIVES MATTER. It is not enough to believe in a cause but rather we must fight for that cause as it was personal to us and our lives as it for sure is. If it were your son or daughter that was choked out or had a knee on their neck as they screamed that they cannot breathe then you would care. Think of it like that, think of it like if they were your son, brother, or father, or daughter (because black women are killed too) and if you do that, you will fight harder for change.

I hear conservatives say that “All lives matter”, that is basically a way of saying that black lives do not matter. If they truly cared about black lives then they would not support a president who speaks racist language or defend cops who kill or the many other things that they do to defend their inaction on this very important issue.

The MAGA movement has racist roots. Not all of them but many have racist views and think what happened to George and others is okay, they deny that Trump (their leader) is racist and refuse to call him out when he says racist things. They praise him when he says racist things about people like Obama and even celebrated the lie that Obama was born in Kenya.

As you can see, racism elected Trump and this racism has been brewing our country for decades and is stronger than ever today in 2020 and the events in Minneapolis have shown that. The past few years have without a doubt been some of the racially divisive in our history and I know why, when you have a black president, it makes racists angry.

What happened to George Floyd is WHY Colin Kaepernick took a knee before every game. It is why we protest racial injustice. It is why we say black lives matter. Colin and others took a stand by taking a knee but we need more and we need white athletes and white everyday Americans to stand up and say that enough is enough — we will not allow this to go on anylonger.

Colin was called “a son of a bitch” by Trump when he protested these types of events, but Colin was right. He took a knee to protest this injustice and was labeled a “traitor” and all sorts of names. He has banished from the NFL and lost sponsorships because he spoke out, but he did the right thing and I view him as a hero. He chose the right thing over doing what was good for himself and his career and I admire him for doing so.

Ask yourself this.

What offends you more, Colin taking a knee to speak out and protest racism or the Minneapolis police officer taking a knee to take a life?

Look hard at who you are and ask yourself that question.

I close with this, I ask this of you, specifically caucasian Americans.

Are you okay with what happened to George Floyd and so many others, are you okay to live in this type of country? If the answer is no, then what are you willing to do about it?

Will you vote racism out in November on all levels of the government and demand change or will you pretend that things are okay?

We are the majority. White Americans are the majority and as the main voice in this country we must stop being silent. Yes, we are in the middle of a global pandemic and we have so much that is scary and wrong with our nation and the way things are going but if people can go out during a public health crisis with a virus out there that may kill them and protest the brutal murder of George, then we can do more than we are doing.

We can speak out and demand change. We can demand that the RACIST language and rhetoric of Donald Trump be called out once and for all, we can demand that white nationalists are called what they ARE instead of “very fine people” and we can demand that all police who kill innocent black people in this country are held accountable and that good cops who do not act this way are praised and celebrated.

George Floyd was the victim here. He was a father of two young girls and a man who had recently los his job due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was just trying to do what he had to do to survive. He was also a son and a brother, but most importantly, George was a human being and a child of God and his life MATTERED.

I ask you all, to stand up against injustice and demand CHANGE. People like George and so many others like him deserve to be honored and deserve to have justice for their lives that were taken far too soon and who had a life that was taken from them.

Do the right thing and NEVER be silent. We owe it to people like George Floyd!