This morning, I was greeted by a comment to a friend's Facebook post about the damage that's been done, seemingly to sully the name of the protests, in Minneapolis and elsewhere. The comment said, "We see you. Now, stop it." [emphasis removed]
Do we? Do we see them? Will police officers never again use excessive force on an unarmed black man? Will civilians, who are not police, never again go chasing after a black man because he "fits the description" of a "black man"? That's it, just black man. Will no police officer ever again break into the wrong apartment and shoot a woman for sitting in her own living room after midnight? Will people never again call the police because a black man told them to wear a mask, because a black man had a cell phone, or because a black family was having a barbecue at a park that featured barbecue stations?
While we're at it, have they released all those children from cages? Have they rescinded the order banning Muslim immigration? Have they done anything to ease the income disparities between minorities and "whites"?
Have they removed the Confederate statues from the South? Because, yes, those are offensive to people of Color. Have they stopped selling Confederate flags as at souvenir shops? And these are not just in the South, either; I saw an over-abundance of Confederate flags at a souvenir shop in Pennsylvania, a state that fought vigorously AGAINST slavery and to preserve the union.
It's not enough to say "We see you" or "We hear you," and we, as white people, certainly have a lot of gall telling persecuted blacks to "stop it". To truly see and hear the people who are protesting is to put an end not to the protests, but to the reasons for the protests.
