Thanksgiving
This season, I've had my fill of white people justifying the evident murder of a black kid in Ferguson, MO by a white cop, which outrages black people and anyone else with a clue - not because it happened, but because it's routine, and so are the excuses presented for it. When they're not making excuses in that way, they're focusing on the way some people have rioted - although I don't see them tongue-clicking and finger-wagging that way when fans riot for such weighty reasons as their team winning a superbowl. Since that's regarded as good clean fun, I don't think the grave concern over people rioting in response to having it made clear to them that cops will never be held accountable for killing them without a cause is really anything but changing the subject.
Of course riots don't help, the same way that telling the spedhead in the IEP meeting to fuck off doesn't generally help either. I always discourage that style, teaching more effective advocacy. But those of us who have had some experiences in spedworld should have no trouble understanding how we can be provoked to be that stupid.
You special ed parents see how it is when they rip off your kid, when they do outrageous and even criminal things to him and you know for certain that it will be difficult or impossible to hold anyone accountable. And the perps, doing this to your kid under color of authority, know that they have the support of their administrators to cover it up.
Now sit still a minute and grok how that feels.
Now consider what it's like for black people, who face this all the time and everywhere, not because it happens all the time, but it always may, and when it does, it's school district sly and the whole system will support it. How easy would you find it to play that right, knowing that it will never end, never be any different, that the majority around you will never get a clue, never have, and clearly don't want to?
As I reflected and wrote on these things the past few days, I understood that the way no one would listen to me when I suffered injustice as a little kid has given me the capacity to understand the elements of justice that we owe to black people. I know on my own hide, intermittently, what black people endure all day, every day, and as a little kid I found even that slight and occasional injustice more than I could endure. When I consider it, I don't know how black people have held it together in this place for 400 years.
As I pondered these things, I saw that it's fitting for me to be thankful for these experiences. They have enabled me to become somewhat human, not completely blinded and bewitched by my white privilege as most of my fellow white folks have proven in the past few weeks to be.
And here's another thing. By doing justice and speaking the truth in the past few days about injustice to black people, I was made able to reprocess my own experience and become grateful for the instruction in justice and mercy that these traumatic things have given me. Doing a little justice has helped me with some serious trauma in my life, teaching me gratitude in place of bitterness.
You never know what might happen when you do a little justice, but such healing is exactly what Isaiah 58 tells us to expect. Try it a little yourself. You'll be well compensated for putting up with the hatred of those who don't want to hear it.
Of course riots don't help, the same way that telling the spedhead in the IEP meeting to fuck off doesn't generally help either. I always discourage that style, teaching more effective advocacy. But those of us who have had some experiences in spedworld should have no trouble understanding how we can be provoked to be that stupid.
You special ed parents see how it is when they rip off your kid, when they do outrageous and even criminal things to him and you know for certain that it will be difficult or impossible to hold anyone accountable. And the perps, doing this to your kid under color of authority, know that they have the support of their administrators to cover it up.
Now sit still a minute and grok how that feels.
Now consider what it's like for black people, who face this all the time and everywhere, not because it happens all the time, but it always may, and when it does, it's school district sly and the whole system will support it. How easy would you find it to play that right, knowing that it will never end, never be any different, that the majority around you will never get a clue, never have, and clearly don't want to?
As I reflected and wrote on these things the past few days, I understood that the way no one would listen to me when I suffered injustice as a little kid has given me the capacity to understand the elements of justice that we owe to black people. I know on my own hide, intermittently, what black people endure all day, every day, and as a little kid I found even that slight and occasional injustice more than I could endure. When I consider it, I don't know how black people have held it together in this place for 400 years.
As I pondered these things, I saw that it's fitting for me to be thankful for these experiences. They have enabled me to become somewhat human, not completely blinded and bewitched by my white privilege as most of my fellow white folks have proven in the past few weeks to be.
And here's another thing. By doing justice and speaking the truth in the past few days about injustice to black people, I was made able to reprocess my own experience and become grateful for the instruction in justice and mercy that these traumatic things have given me. Doing a little justice has helped me with some serious trauma in my life, teaching me gratitude in place of bitterness.
You never know what might happen when you do a little justice, but such healing is exactly what Isaiah 58 tells us to expect. Try it a little yourself. You'll be well compensated for putting up with the hatred of those who don't want to hear it.
posted by Peter Attwood at 11/29/2014 08:15:00 PM
1 Comments:
Just moments ago I read some comments by former NYC Mayor Guilliani. I can not believe that he can not recognize how stupid his comments were. I wonder how long it will take before that is pointed out to him. It was reported that he said that he has changed his mind about the need for police to have body cameras because it would show that 90 to 95% of police shooting were justified. He acts as if an unjustified shooting rate of 5 to 10% is something to be satisfied with if not even proud of.
Maybe misunderstood what he was saying maybe he meant that he has changed his mind and now supports the cameras so that we can see for ourselves that 90 to 95 % of police shootings are justified. Either way it looks like he is satisfied with a failure rate of 10%. Does he think that police shooting are like questions on a college entrance examination?
Mr. Guilliani also made some comments about the need of low income blacks to collectively take more responsibility in lowering the crime rates in their communities.
While I agree that there are a few measures that non governmental African American institutions could take on their own it should be obvious to any observer that this is a problems that the African American community can not solve on their own.
In America crime is connected to poverty. Sadly the a large part of the African American community is trapped in a devilish cycle of poverty breeding crime and crime breeding even more poverty.
The Republican Party actually benefits from this state of affairs as our side gets in numbers reduced every year from thousands of what are essentially friendly fire incidents. That is not to say that I want to see an increase of black on white crime.
I am an old fashioned kind of guy that thinks that if anyone is going to suffer it should be someone who deserves it. That means people who hold high level positions who have betrayed the trust that society has given them.
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