No Easy Answers

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In the summer of 2014, I was living in Denmark when Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York City were killed at the hands of police.

Their deaths caused national outrage, sparked non-violent protests (and some violence and looting) in cities across the country and grew the Black Lives Matter movement that began after the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin.

I was shocked and horrified at these tragedies – which were just the latest in a long history of tragic interactions between police and black people in my country.

As an American living abroad, I was also ashamed that this was how my country was seen by outsiders. Just a few years after the celebratory mood of electing our first black president, it was clear there were still deep undercurrents of systemic racism and flawed policing tactics across America, with fatal consequences for black citizens.

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Six years later, I am again living in Denmark, and it seems very little has changed in my country.

In February of this year, Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed by two white men while jogging in his town in Georgia.

And then last week, George Floyd was killed at the hands of police officers in Minnesota, one of whom kneeled on his neck for eight minutes despite his cries for help.

Once again, there are protests – mostly non-violent marches but yes, some violence and looting – in cities across America.

And once again, I am deeply ashamed of the country I love.

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In the case of George Floyd, it is worth noting that the specific tactic that led to his death – kneeling on his neck – had long since been banned by the Minneapolis Police Department. It is also worth noting that the specific officer in question had already been reprimanded for excessive force several times. Finally, I applaud the mayor of Minneapolis for taking swift action and using his elected position to take a strong moral stand. The officers in question were immediately fired and criminal charges were filed within days of the incident.

But none of that was enough to prevent George Floyd’s death – and none of that is solace to George Floyd’s family.

Despite being reprimanded multiple times, the officer was not removed from duty.

Despite knowing it was dangerous and prohibited to kneel on a person’s neck, the other officers at the scene did nothing to intervene.

Both reek of a lack of moral courage.

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To my Danish and international friends who see America’s cities littered with burning rubble and broken glass, please know two things:

First, the national sense of outrage in response to George Floyd’s death speaks not only to the brutal way he was killed but also a long-standing frustration among many people of color about the way they are treated in America.

People are protesting not just because of one man’s senseless death – but because this keeps happening again and again, because people fear it could happen to them or their loved ones, and because so many people have experienced police mistreatment or subtler forms of discrimination in their daily life.

Second, those committing acts of violence and destroying property are a small minority. In many cases, they are people who have come from outside these cities with the intention to commit vandalism and arson, because they derive some perverse amusement from destruction and think they can get away with such acts under the smoke screen of legitimate protests. Just as we would do well not to paint all 800,000 police officers in the U.S. based on the actions of a few, we would do well not to paint all protesters as rioters, looters, vandals and arsonists.

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“I’m not racist.” “I don’t see color.” “I have a black friend.” “I voted for Obama.”

These are all common sentiments in the U.S. Usually expressed by well-meaning white people – a category in which I certainly fall. Usually expressed when they feel they’re being accused of being racist.

Systemic racism is, by definition, perpetuated by the structures of our institutions, including our schools, courts, prisons and corporations. It is a function not only of the people in power in these institutions, but the rules and policies that govern them. Like gravity, it is there whether or not we want to acknowledge it or talk about it.

Unconscious bias is just that – unconscious, and a product of our upbringing, the norms in our society, our social interactions, and the information we consume. We all – myself very much included – have unconscious biases, not just around race.

Recognizing that I come to this issue with tremendous privilege, I would simply offer this rule of thumb:

If someone signals that they are uninterested in discussing these complex issues in good faith, do not waste your time and energy on them. Those people, the ones with (literal or metaphorical) Confederate flags on their pickup trucks, are a dwindling minority that is dying out due to their ignorance and moral bankruptcy.

If the person seems sincere but ill-informed, misguided or defensive, accusing them of being racist is unlikely to bring you closer to common ground. Perhaps talking about unconscious bias and systems of power can be a good way to start a conversation.

Is it fair that people of color should have to modulate their own speech and actions to make white people less uncomfortable? No. But building alliances is the only way to change the system.

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Finally, if you are, like me, a well-meaning white person watching this tragedy unfold yet again, you may be wondering what you can do.

I do not claim to have all the answers – and I welcome your constructive suggestions in the comments.

Here are four suggestions from my own admittedly limited experience:

1) Read about the history of social justice movements and nonviolent civil disobedience by leaders like Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Yes, today the tactics and technologies of social change have evolved – we have Twitter – but the fundamentals of uniting people and striving for justice have not. I read the autobiographies of those three leaders when I was 13 years old and continue to revisit them.

2) Volunteer with children. Working with kids not only helps them overcome systemic barriers to success, but also helps us identify and question our own unconscious biases. Black and brown children in the U.S. do not need a “white savior,” but all children in vulnerable situations deserve a mentor or advocate. I volunteered for two years as a teen mentor through the Boys & Girls Club in Columbus, Georgia. Subsequently, I moved to Maryland and became a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for a child in foster care. I can highly recommend both organizations. Becoming a CASA involves an extensive training curriculum, including components on race and bias, which I found very eye-opening.

3) Work with veterans and the military. This has nothing to do with endorsing America’s military spending or the politics behind the wars we fight. For all its flaws, the military seems – at least from my outside perspective looking in – to do an excellent job of promoting unity and cohesion. The military outlawed discrimination and mandated racial integration in 1948, years before the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling did the same in civilian life. Today, the military continues to be an escalator for upward social mobility by providing job training and university education for millions of Americans of all races. The time I spent volunteering with the American Red Cross at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and working with the public works department at Fort Benning showed me a model of professionals from every race and ethnicity working to achieve a common mission.

4) Get involved in your community. Many towns offer a “citizen’s law enforcement academy” or similar free program to help residents understand how the police work, what to do if pulled over, etc. I participated in a 16-week program like this in 2016. Although much of the content was presented from the perspective of the police, we also heard from public defenders and community leaders and had ample opportunity to question and challenge the police department. The students in our class ranged from teenagers interested in a career in law enforcement, to older white residents active in their neighborhood watch program, to younger black residents skeptical of the police. I think we all learned something about policing, local government – and each other – through the program. If your town offers something similar, I encourage you to check it out.