If We Remain Silent, It Was Not Just George Floyd Who Was Suffocated

It's impossible to miss the news going on around us. Triggered in Minneapolis, by a despicable act of someone who should never have been put in the privileged position as an officer of the peace, tensions have exploded. As an American, I am embarrassed for our country by what this police officer did, but also for the violence that has resulted. As a human, I am ashamed of our species’ behavior, both for what drove this officer to brutally kill this person, but also for how we continue to treat each other. As a person whose skin complexion is not of color, I am trying hard to understand what someone who by the grace of God, has darker skin, has to go through every day. Until I gain an understanding of that, I too am part of the problem.

A friend, fellow board member, and professor at Babson confided in me several years ago about what she taught her son. She taught him the facts of what it would be like to live in a discriminatory world. She didn’t talk about what was fair and not fair. She instead focused on the reality of what it is to grow up as a black male, especially in the elite Boston suburbs in which she and her family live. She taught him that he would always be singled out, always suspected of being up to something, and prejudged no matter what his intentions.  The necessity of a parent having this conversation with her child, in the predominantly liberal state of Massachusetts, in the 21st Century, has always stayed in the back of my mind. This current set of events has brought the conversation back into focus.

The situation that we find ourselves in is not about how one cop could act so heinously. It’s equally not about whether lawful protests that get out of hand are necessary or justified.  It is about understanding our differences.  Until we take it upon ourselves to actively participate in understanding and empathizing with others, who are not like us, we run the risk of focusing on one unlawful taking of a life and not upon the real issue - racism and prejudice.  Until we eradicate that, anything we do is just a band-aid on an issue which will be ineffective to cure our critical condition.

If you do nothing, you are part of the problem. It’s time for each of us to step up. If we remain silent, it was not just George Floyd who was suffocated, but it was also you and me.