People protest/riot against what they perceive as systemic racism leading to tragic events such as the death of George Floyd. I think the vast majority of people across races and party lines feel that this officer's conduct was appalling (though he is legally innocent until proven guilty and deserves his day in court.
However, though these events continue to occur and dominate the news when they do, I rarely hear people discussing the narrow issue of how these issues related to police brutality can be addressed. The only solution I hear is that racism should stop. Clearly it should. But that won't happen overnight.
What solutions to the issue of police brutality (regardless of who they are brutal against) do you think would make a difference?
First of all, I agree that racism exists.
But there are two kinds of racism causing problems in this country.
1.
Old fashioned hatred and bias based on perceptions of innate "racial superiority"...delineated by "what you look like" (skin color, eye shape, etc.).
To an old-fashioned racist, anyone of a different race needs to be dominated, exiled, or eliminated.
2.
Paternalistic Racism...exemplified by treating another group of people as
a class of juvenile.
To a "Paternalistic Racist" such juveniles need lots of guidance, special care, and above all tolerance when they act out because "they don't know any better."
Category 1 is overt and easily recognized because it is demonstrated by visceral, "in your face" reactions, often violent but also simply uncaring/demeaning/ignoring.
Category 2 is insidiously covert, hard to recognize because such people profess love and support for the targets of this form of racism.
IMO Category 2 racists are more damaging because they treat us as if wayward "special needs" children, never exercising discipline, or pushing for self-actualization via the struggle to achieve personal success.
This second group is the cause of over 50 years of wasted social programs which seemed a good idea, but in reality have devastated the Black community.
Black Americans have been given the illusion of success. Meanwhile now dealing with fatherless families, mass welfare dependency, high community crime, drug abuse, and the image that we are still second class citizens subject to "institutional racism."
Small wonder we see our fellows spending more time shooting each other, feeling unable to succeed, lacking important family ties...and rioting at the drop of a hat.
Strangely, while there are successful Black American men and women, they are not held up as examples for the community. Instead purveyors of Paternalistic Racism vilify them as race-traitors, while holding up divisive race-baiting members of our community as the examples we should seek to follow.
As I posted elsewhere, the proof of my assertions is this simple statement:
If we were really being treated as "equals," then White Progressives, Liberals, whatever political lean, would no more tolerate members of the Black Community acting out like we are seeing in perpetual rioting these many years, than they would any White peers doing so.
TRUE EQUALITY will come when people are treated equally regardless of the color of their skin. To paraphrase a great man; when we can...
...live in a nation where [WE] will not be judged by the color of [OUR] skin but by the content of [OUR] character.
(Martin Luther King I Have a Dream Speech).
