America just cannot seem to make any progress in dialogue and action on racial reconciliation.
Here in Cheddarland, a Unitarian church suffered some vandalism to its “Black Lives Matter” banner. Someone sliced out the word Black. A political action group using that phrase as its tagline actually harassed and ended a Bernie Sanders rally in Seattle last week, which seems crazy because a leftist like Bernie would seem to be most dialed into their concerns. They seized his mike and drove him off the stage. A Martin O’Malley campaign event was also disrupted by BLM activists.
There seem to be two Americas, exemplified by two completely different ways of hearing the BLM phrase. For some the phrase is untouchable. Any tampering with it is considered to mean that you tolerate and approve of police brutality toward African-Americans. Former NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes in the August 24 issue of Time that the BLM phrase is a political touchstone. He says that the phrase All Lives Matter “appeases racism deniers. This is cowardly because it completely ignores the problem and panders to the least politically informed constituency.” This America sees racism as the primary cause of black folks’ troubles, that they are victims of the oppression of others.
The other America considers its view more balanced. These folks prefer the phrase All Lives Matter because they see plenty of violence, neglect, and criminality on all sides. GOP candidate Ben Carson has voiced the view that black folks are far more at risk of black-on-black violence than police oppression. Joseph Weber quotes Carson: “The solution is to re-instill such values as “family and faith” that have helped black Americans through slavery, segregation and the Jim Crow era. If you abandon those things, this is what we get,’ he said, arguing the problems are in large part the result of the police and members of the black community being mutually fearful of each other.”
Time’s August 24 issue contained a feature on Philadelphia’s police force. It quotes officer Ernie Williams, “All lives matter. I’ve been an African American male longer than I’ve been a police officer. But if I’m working with a partner, his life matters. I want him to go home to his family too.”
Maybe technology can help us reframe the argument. Cell phone technology has made every smartphone carrier a cameraman. When a white cop killed a black man named Walter Scott, the North Charleston PD’s initial pronouncement was self-defense. Two days later a cell phone video began circulating of the cop shooting Scott four times in the back as he attempted to run away and then planting his Taser near the body. The officer is now charged with murder. There is a movement afoot to equip cops with body cams, and a fair number of officers around the country say that they would welcome that form of corroboration of their good policing practices. Whether you agree or not, the fact is that when cops approach black folks in stressful situations these days, you can expect to see onlookers’ arms extended, phones pointed forward.
You can’t erase America’s racial history or fix America’s racial dysfunctions. But you can choose to believe and act on the Bible’s powerful messages that all people are designed and created by a wise and loving Father, that all people are loved and redeemed by Christ the Savior, and that all people are uniquely gifted by the Holy Spirit for potential service to his grand agenda.
Originally posted by Time of Grace.
