On George Floyd: The Need for Division

Valor, Wisdom, and Peace

The pain and sadness I feel over the murder of George Floyd is almost unbearable.

I don’t know exactly why or where this comes from, but my gut loves Mr. Floyd, even though I hardly know anything about him. I weep.

Only a handful of people in this global drama actually knew Mr. Floyd. We can read about “this person,” from stories and the record of his life. But our best hope to know much of anything about him at all (at least for me) comes from watching his family as they mourn. They seem really to love him. They are thrust into such a horrible limelight, but their demeanor and contribution has been astounding, extraordinary.

Mr. Floyd’s younger brother Terrence courageously went to the site of his brother’s murder. He was overcome upon arrival. ABC News reported, “The younger Floyd’s knees buckled when he saw massive painting on a wall in Minneapolis.”

Yet even under this unimaginable weight of mourning and pain, Terrence managed to offer thoughts. He spoke in his brother’s honor. And even though spontaneous (rather all the more so because it was spontaneous), his speech is an eternal contribution to American history.

Terrence Floyd gives us a window into his brother, not just from what he says about George, but also from what he says about his family, and from how he comports himself under such unimaginable circumstances.

At the scene of his brother’s murder Terrence Floyd spoke through a bullhorn:

“I understand you’re all upset. But like it was already said, I doubt y’all are half as upset as I am.

“So if I’m not over here wilding out, if I’m not over here blowing up stuff, if I’m not over here messing up my community, then what are y’all doing? What are y’all doing? You’re doing nothing, because that’s not gonna bring my brother back at all. It may feel good for the moment, just like when you drink, but when you come down, you’re gonna wonder what you did.

“My family is a peaceful family. My family is God-fearing. Yeah, we are upset. But we’re not gonna take it — we’re not gonna be repetitious. In every case of police brutality the same thing has been happening. Y’all protest, y’all destroy stuff, and things don’t move.

“So let’s do this another way. Let’s stop thinking that our voice don’t matter, and vote. Not just vote for the president. Vote for the preliminaries. Vote for everybody. Educate yourself. Educate yourself. Don’t wait for somebody else to tell you who’s who. Educate yourself and know who you’re voting for. And that’s how we’re gonna hit ’em, because it’s a lot of us…and we’re still gonna do this peacefully.”

Later, during a Good Morning America interview on Monday, Terrence Floyd said of his brother,

“He was a gentle giant. He was about peace, unity. The things that are transpiring now, they may call it unity, but it’s destructive unity. That’s not what he was about. That’s not what my brother was about. Channel your anger to do something positive.”

This is the best I have for now. George Floyd was about peace and unity. He was a gentle giant. He was raised in a peaceful family, a God-fearing family, a family that raised courageous, intelligent people like his younger brother Terrence, who in the midst of untold grief, standing in the center of a world in flames, had the presence to beg eloquently for peace.

Beyond that, as or more profoundly he begged for one additional thing. He begged from those who stood with him shoulder to shoulder on that accursed piece of pavement. He asked this not once, but three times that his (and our) brothers and sisters whose lives also are an unending river of the exact same pain, day in day out. He begged even as his heart blazed in pain in front the world, “Educate yourself. Educate yourself. Don’t wait for somebody else to tell you who’s who. Educate yourself.”

This is George Floyd’s family

Derek Chauvin. A Detestable Man

The second thing I suffer is unspeakable fury and rage at Officer Derek Chauvin. Again, just like with Mr. Floyd, I know almost nothing about Mr. Chauvin. Yet murder or not, there is something clearly and insuperably detestable in my feelings about him.

The nature and style Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd’s has a demonic feel about it. No one without a crippled conscience, and a blackened soul is able to murder in such a way. Even if George Floyd lived and went on to pitch for the Yankees, there would still never be any way for me to see Derek Chauvin as anything but loathsome and abominable.

These are the two things I have to start with; How I feel about George Floyd. How I feel about Derek Chauvin. With this I have to look at my own life, and try to figure out what are my own responsibilities as a person living in a time and in a country where something so close to evil can happen.

From my feelings, and my careful attention to what can be known. I believe George Floyd is a true martyr in every sense of the word. I believe Derek Chauvin embodied pure and true evil in his soulless murder of George Floyd. I admire Terrence, and by extension the Floyd family. I praise God for such families, and for their voice of valor and wisdom.

Division

What is the Division of which I speak in the title of this piece?

I build this piece based on four Biblical references. The first is: Matthew 25:31–34, and 41

“31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

(Bible readers will recognize small abridgments)

Self Examination

The second Biblical verse which informs these reflections is John 8: 3–8, and the closely related Matthew 7: 3 -4

[John 8] They [the Pharisees] made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

(Again a minor abridgment related to writing on the ground)

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[Matthew 7] 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Reparations

The final Biblical verse that guides my thoughts here is Matthew 5: 23–24

23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

In summary then, the Biblical bases guiding my thoughts at this sad and tragic time are:

1. Divide good from evil (Mt 25)
2. Find and cleanse my own evil first (John 8, Mt 7)
3. Be real (genuine) about my efforts to be good (Mt 5)

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To jump to the punchline, so as not to string you along, my conclusion is this: I am possessed of two all consuming, perfectly equal passions and desires, but they come in a given practical order.

1. I wish people to stop burning down my country, stop committing heinous and violent crimes against innocents, and stop committing crimes against property both public and sacred, and against any person’s private property. I wish this would stop entirely, instantly.
2. I wish all injustice, and all inequality against any person, and against any group of people, in every last of its forms would stop entirely, and instantly.

(If either of these positions are inconsistent with your own, you might as well stop reading now, because advocacy for the end of violent and criminal protests, and advocacy for the end of racism are where this article ends up)

As said, I believe three patterns (drawn this time from the Bible, as chance would have it) can contribute greatly to these two ends. These are (as said above):

1. Separate good from evil
2. Do so in myself first
3. Pursue good genuinely

We all want to be engaged and responsible in response to the evil felt from the murder of George Floyd. To do so intelligently and effectively, we should look as closely and as prayerfully as possible at each and every single element that requires us to be properly informed. Once we’ve come up with the best knowledge and conclusions possible, we should be willing to fight unto death to right the wrongs shown us from this demonic murder that scalds our hearts and consciences.

Are Cops Racist? Is America Racist?

Was the murder of George Floyd racist? Any honest person has to admit that no one honestly knows if this is the case or not.

It certainly looks like racism. We do know that Derek Chauvin had 18 prior complaints filed against him. How many of those complaints involved black people? If some, most, or all of these complaints involved black people, what types of neighborhoods were Derek Chauvin’s beats? If he only policed black neighborhoods, then his entire record, good or bad, is about black people.

How about his record off the beat? Back at the station? Do we have a lot of evidence of him being a racist back at the station? How about during his cook outs in his backyard? We all know racists. There have to be plenty of people who would be able to tell us whether or not Chauvin was a racist. We surely know that Chauvin looks to be a vile, detestable low-life, seemingly evil cop. But I honestly don’t know if Chauvin was a racist.

Is the City of Minneapolis Police Department especially racist? Again. Could be. I don’t know. Maybe it’s exceptionally not racist. Maybe it’s a crappy police department, but in fact at least in the area of racism it’s not too bad? I really don’t know. (By the way, though I have no idea about the MDP, but I do know one MDP cop who is as fine a human being as any I know. Suffering like hell right now.)

Are police in America especially racist? Again I don’t know. I live in NYC. Personally, I don’t see all that many white cops. It’s hard for me to imagine how a professional community with 10s of 1000s of ethnic minorities working side by side with, and often over white people can be uniquely and especially racist in its professional behavior. But I just don’t know. Maybe it is.

Is America especially racist? As compared to other countries on earth, it doesn’t seem to be so to me. I’ve been to a hundred countries, and I live as non-white in America. It seems to me that America is pretty good compared. Maybe one of the best.

Is there racism in America? God yes. Do blacks have an especial unspeakable silent well of rage, pain, fury, and countless and constant experiences of racism both personal and systemic in America? God yes. (But this reality, is not that easy for a lot of people to know about. It’s horrible. Unending pain and rage. Little could be worse.)

Am I Racist?

OK, now here’s the easiest part.

Am I racist? Probably. Do I like that? Probably not. Would I feel better about myself if I could heal myself from that? Probably. I think so. Is the Caucasian, Black Lives Matter arsonist from Chicago burning down black neighborhoods in Minneapolis racist? Probably. At least to some extent. If she’s not at all racist, then exactly how did this young arsonist lady attain such an elevated and enlightened state of human equality? Or Chris Cuomo? Did Mr. Cuomo go to some special school that purged him of the near ubiquitous curse of being racist that infects all the rest of us?

But Chris, and the young white, arsonist from Chicago burning down black neighborhoods in Minneapolis are not the point. Back to me. I know racism is a problem. I know I myself am probably racist, at least to some extent. What’s the cure for that?

Again, in this instance I present these enlightened and illuminated guidelines for addressing this curse. In particular case, I got them from the Bible.

1. Separate good from evil
2. Do so in myself first
3. Pursue good genuinely

Separate good from evil. Do not live in a blurry admixture about ourselves. “I’m more or less OK.” I’m NOT “more or less OK.” There are parts of me that are evil. To the extent that I’m racist, that’s evil. Divide, separate. Face facts. Address the problem. Fix the problem. Don’t fix the problem in Senator So and So, or in Police Chief So and So.

Fix it in ME. That’s where I can keep an honest check on things.

Once I’ve done the honest dividing, separating good from evil. My next job is to fix the problem.

When I set out to do reparations, I should do so genuinely, honestly, and in fact. Don’t go kneel in front of some stranger, in some sort of bizarre generic mea culpa. That’s just plain embarrassing. As they say in Queens, WTF?

If I did something to somebody, then go find that person, and fix it for goodness sake. If I can’t find that person, and I finally see that I’ve been a jerk, then change. Start behaving properly. (And be patient. Everything takes time. Get better and better at it the more we try. But please let’s not be embarrassing jerks, doing odd and dumb stuff.)

As each of us struggles like hell, and genuinely goes through the labor of identifying and dividing my own good from my own evil, following up with the exhausting hard work to fix my evil, then at last we’ll have some people who can spot racism when we see it, call it out, step in and say something, and even more importantly have some real and workable ideas about how to fix it (because I’ve been doing the work. I’ve been trying to fix this for years).

In the meantime, please let us all Bless the Floyds with every last ounce of our being, and with that be aware that we Bless also the 10’s of millions of Floyds trying to breathe and stay alive, every single, damn, day. That Blessing includes justice. The fullness of it.

But for most of us, our job is consolation, solidarity, and some honest self-work.

When through our efforts, we finally get some real, first hand knowledge about how evil racism really is, and what it takes it takes to fix it, then we can increase our originally small Blessing. We can put strong arms and legs to the tiller. We can grunt with pain and sweat. And with a righteous, steadfast hand, shoulder to shoulder move our country and our world forward. We stand or fall as one.