And only a start to step in the right direction
This was an extremely heavy week at its start. Then, Derek Chauvin the former officer that knelt on the back of George Floyd, was found guilty.
And through all of the trial, and subsequent conviction, he remained stoic and expressionless. It made me think of all of the people who repeatedly commit infractions against other human beings and retain that unaffected blank stare. I guess the only thing worse are the ones who continue their bad behavior with a smile.
I keep thinking about this all too uncomfortable conversation I had at a recent Easter celebration. I was speaking to a member of the US Air force. He happened to have contributed to the conception of this gloriously cheerful two-year-old that was playing with my niece of the same age. Our family was hosting their introduction to cascarones for the egg hunt.
The conversation started on the subject of veganism and evolved to racism. According to this Oregon bred serviceman, racism does not exist and is simply an excuse for bad behavior. He never experienced it in his life, but his wife had been called a racial expletive for a Mexican. All I could think was the terrible unchecked privilege he was displaying.
It is important to say that before we sat down for lunch, he expressed a desire to join the police force in some capacity because he “wanted to do good and help people.” He was really saying, I want to legally carry a gun without a background check (as if that doesn’t happen already) and spread this internalized racism that I have acquired by setting myself apart from the experiences of others.
This is an overarching problem of a mentality of “out of sight, out of mind.” We do not care about things unless they are immediately in our vantage point. We do not care about climate change unless the ocean is creeping on our property line. We do not care about wildlife unless there is a shortage of animals we can immediately observe at the nearest zoo. We do not care about our own health unless we have to spend exorbitant amounts of money on medication to keep us alive.
We do not care about social justice until a friend or family member dies as a result of an officer who has been trained to target a certain population kills them. Police in the United States were founded on racist ideologies. Target the weak and powerless.
Tuesday was a start to righting something historically wrong in this country. But it has to keep building.
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