Police brutality, essay addressing common apologist refrain, racial justice stuff, sexual assault mention in my comments, some comments to other white people
Here's a really nice essay that breaks down some things around "why didn't they just comply". It talks some about the historical precedent for this excuse (it's old) and highlights that police are in control of these situations and actively make it more difficult for civilians to survive them.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/compliance-will-not-save-my-body/618637/
I have a few more thoughts around this:
* When you say "the officer would not have shot that man if that man had only _______", you're just making it up. You don't know that for sure. You're probably saying it because you're confident the officer would not have shot you, and you do ______ . So, you mistake your single data point as the capital-t Truth and completely lose the point of why people are upset.
* Asking people to comply with police, regardless of police conduct, under penalty of death sets up a terrible precedent. If people expect police to kill civilians, it makes it very easy for police to threaten to kill civilians to get what they want (a cop raping a woman who called for help comes to mind).
* Notice how incredibly kind the author is. Notice how generously he talks about cops he likes! Notice how hard this author is working to build bridges. Fellow white people: stop senselessly alienating moderates. Many 'moderates' are way more likely to listen to you than to someone of color.
Your thoughts can be as radical as you like, and probably should be-- cops are killing civilians and some Americans are blaming the civilians! But, if all you do is stew in a rage so radicalized that you can't find a foothold for progress, you're forcing that work off on someone else. Someone who's either already in politics and trying to address issues of race for the first time (and probably not as familiar with this stuff as you are), or someone who's experienced many issues with race and is trying to get conservative folks in politics to listen.
Real change happens in many ways. There needs to be civic pressure and there needs to be folks to help steer legislation. Huge protests and civil unrest can generate pressure, but without community members stepping forward to work more directly with the legal process, the same people who wrote the bad laws in the first place are stuck writing the next set, too. Vote, certainly, but legislative change is achievable outside of only voting, as well.
Police brutality, racial justice stuff, some comments to other white people, mention of white supremacy, guilt, call to action
Remember: the issue at hand, today, is making a trip to the grocery store (or whatever) as safe for a black teenager as it is for a white teenager. Do I want more than that from the world? Of course. But, right now, things are *bad*. As white people, we don't get to say "we don't want incremental improvements today, we'll wait for perfect justice tomorrow". We don't get to say that because it's not our bodies that pay the price of that idealistic delay. For black people, incremental justice today can change whether or not their sister dies next week, or whether or not a father's PTSD leads to something tragic. For white people, incremental justice today means you still need to think about race, but you tell yourself that in the perfect future, you won't. That's the trade-- you get that perfect future so you can ignore this problem as early as possible. Black people keep dying until your gamble pays off, if it ever does, and you might win the absolution from your guilt.
Fuck that. Get over your guilt and help build something better today. There was a big, bad crime that lasted for many generations. It'll take many generations to heal from it. More than your lifetime, more than mine. And you've got to become at least a little okay with that, because the slow work to build a more just community is the right thing to do. Keep that rebellion in your heart. Cherish that fire. Let it drive you, don't let that fire escape you entirely. Make it power art and dreams and essays. Make it power poetry readings and meetups and community listening. Make radical stuff, but make approachable, friendly stuff, too. Let your fire fuel justice instead of gambling it on destroying a community in the hopes that the ruins aren't paved over by some billionaire.
Yesterday, at Floyd Square, a black woman challenged white supremacists to come down and stand between black people and cops who'd kill them. To help stop the killing and coralling and tragedies borne on black and brown bodies because they are people, even if it's not from a place of total equality. Now, I'm not saying that you should be friends with racists or that you should listen to them or even give them your full name and address. But, if one black woman is willing to reach out to someone who thinks she will never be as smart or as capable or as important-- someone who will never truly value her-- if she can deal with someone who judges her because of who she is, then you can deal politely with a moderate for a couple of days to get some city ordinance or other amended, too. You can organize an outdoor forum. You can talk with your apologist brother-in-law in a way he might actually listen.
Your own politics are unique and always will be. The hope is for a future in which its safe to be non-white, not for a world where we all agree with you. Have faith in yourself that you can have ideals that don't vanish if you talk with someone who believes something else.
Justice will be imperfect for a long time. And that's okay. Never forget it is imperfect, never stop pushing for better, but more importantly, never turn down an opportunity for progress. That's just not a call white people get to make. Get over your guilt, but never let go of that dream. Have faith that your fire, burning for justice, will still be there in a few years and start making some longer term plans for it.
