Privilege, Hatred and Division

Dear Friends,

I have been overwhelmed by the graphic videos of the killings in Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights and Dallas and am writing this blog in an attempt to clarify my thoughts.

I was born and have lived a life of extreme privilege.  I am a white, male, financially well off, well educated, straight, raised Christian person.  In this country it does not get any better than that.  I was raised in an environment where there were no people of color.  It was not until I got to college that I had any classmates who were persons of color and then they inhabited a world different from mine.  It was ok to have Jewish friends, but Jewish doctors needed to start their own hospital because they could not get privileges at the "Christian" ones.  In fifth grade while writing a paper, I spoke with my father about hiring black people.  He said that he would be worried about hiring a black lawyer at his firm because many clients would object.  There was, of course, no talk of being gay, and I never saw the ghettos of North Minneapolis.

Overt racism, anti-sematism, homophobia, etc. has been eliminated from visibility in polite society, and our society has made progress at eliminating legal discrimination; but our society continues to be rife with racism and fear of "others".  Those of us with privilege and hence power in our society must be held accountable for permitting the continuation of this institutional fear of others.  The question is what can I do.

I do not know and cannot really imagine what it is like to be black (or gay or female or of some other persecuted class of people).  How can I learn to see the world as I would if I had been born a black male in a poor family in north Minneapolis without the privilege and opportunities that I have had?  I know I would not be where I am today.  While the video by Diamond Reynolds of the aftermath of the killing of Philando Castile is sickening and heartbreaking, it has done more to help me understand what it might be like to be black than any other thing I have seen or read.  But there must be a better way for me to understand.

I, and the rest of the society, must see, feel, believe and truly know that we are all human beings of equal worth who deserve respect, compassion, love and empathy.  It is possible that over time we can achieve that result as we all know and love people who are "other".  Unfortunately we do not have time.  We have squandered so many decades and so many opportunities to become one.  In recent years, we have become less of a community not more of one.  We think too much of ourselves and too little about each other.

I believe that the vast majority of people in our society want peace, justice, equal opportunity, love and happiness for all people.  Unfortunately, we in that group are failing to hold others accountable for their actions that fracture and divide our society.

For years the fringes of the Republican party have used racial dog whistles and other fear of "other" tactics to gain and maintain control.  The vast majority of the Republican Party who want an inclusive society have not held the fringe accountable and now they have Donald Trump and many of the Republican leaders are endorsing him.  The "good" Republicans must reclaim their party and put the fringe back on the fringe.

The vast majority of the people on the police forces are people who want an inclusive society and are members of the police force because they want to serve and protect the entire community.  Unfortunately, they have failed to hold the small minority of police officers who thrive on power, hatred, fear and division accountable for their actions.  The "good" police must reclaim the police forces everywhere and hold each other accountable.

The privileged white liberals (I include myself in this group) in general believe in an inclusive society free from hatred and fear of "other", but have failed to confront the issue with the full force of their privilege and power.  It is not enough for us to say and believe that we are all human beings and deserve respect, equal opportunity, etc.  We must use our privilege and power to rid our society of institutional racism and fear and hatred of "other".  We let the Democratic Party move to the right, to be controlled by monied interests.  We have failed to hold ourselves accountable for a government and a society that continues to be run and controlled by division, fear and hatred.

Governor Mark Dayton made history when he said of the killing of Philando Castile

Would this have happened if those passengers or driver were white? I don’t think it would have. 

Why is it that by saying what everybody already knew was true, Governor Dayton is making news?  I am afraid the answer is that we liberals have for some reason not been willing to fully acknowledge that driving while black can get you killed by the police because our society continues to be racist.  While I will never know what it is like to be black, I can stand up with all my whiteness and privilege and speak truth to power, and I can truly and intentionally listen to my fellow human beings who do not have the privilege that I do and join with them in their struggle because it is my struggle as well.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Charlie Hebdo, Hatred, Disrespect and Loss of Community

Dear Friends,

The news here in France is all about the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo.  In Villefranche-sur-mer, where I am, a small town far from Paris, a special ceremony to greet the mayor has been cancelled and all the townspeople are being encouraged to go to Nice for a silent vigil tomorrow.  There are flyers and signs everywhere in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo, the victims and their families.  They all read something like "Nous sommes tous Charlie." It is the worst terrorist attack on French mainland soil for 50 years.  I cannot help but feel the pain that the French are feeling.

Unfortunately, I also cannot help but think that those within France, the United States and other places that thrive on and encourage fear, hatred and disrespect play a role in the breakdown of civility which can lead to this type of attack.  These attacks are not attacks on free speech. They are part of a larger war by fundamentalists and extremists who are the subject of hatred, discrimination and disenfranchisement, none of which justify the actions but certainly explain why radicalisation occurs.

The far right in France, personified by the Front National, its most popular far right party that polled around 25% in the last elections in which the turnout was very low, has been fanning anti-immigrant, anti-Islam and anti-Semitic sentiments which has lead to a recent increase in Islamophobic and anti-Semitic attacks across France.  The other political parties are excluding the Front National from the idea of French unity after the attack and apparently did not issue an invitation to the FN to a public rally to show unity in the face of the Charlie Hebbo terrorist attack.  There is a significant feeling in France that it is the disenfranchisement of the immigrants, caused by the fear and hatred encouraged by the NF,  that has made it easy to radicalise people.

Even though the NF has been excluded, there is an incredible sense of solidarity in France in the aftermath of these attacks and the subsequent hostage situations that have just been resolved.  I only hope that in the days ahead, this unity is not squandered as it was in the United States after the 9/11 attacks.

Of course France is not the only country in which the far right relies on fear and hatred of those that are "others".  The far right in the United States does exactly the same thing.  A significant part of the Republican party does everything it can to make people afraid and particularly afraid of anybody that is not a "white American".  This approach is clear in such things such as immigration, but it is just as present in the economic discussions when the "others" are the poor and those who receive government assistance, a majority of which are non-white.

Republican candidates for President have dropped any pretence of being "compassionate conservatives".  Uniformly they are opposed to an increase in the minimum wage, they support the repeal of Obamacare, they oppose immigration reform, they are in favour of lower taxes on the rich, they are opposed to any effort to reduce the immoral economic gap between the rich and the poor, they want to suppress the vote of those that are "other", they want to eliminate the economic safety net, and the list goes on and on.

Relying on fear and hatred to obtain and retain power, leads inevitably to a complete lack of respect for those that are "other".  Representative Joe Wilson's shouting of "You lie!!" at President Obama during his State of the Union address, is a comparatively mild example of the disrespect that is engendered by the Republicans and others that stoke fear and hatred of "others".  Unfortunately the examples of public disrespect have been increasing including the recent disrespect by some of the New York City police who have turned their backs on Mayor de Blasio.  There can be no debate that disrespect has become epidemic in recent times, and I believe that the public stoking of fear and hatred is largely responsible for this epidemic.

The fear and hatred stoked disrespect for "others" leads to a lack of outrage when violence is committed against "others".  The incredible overreaction and use of excess force by police when a young black male is involved demonstrates a complete lack of respect for them as individuals and human beings.  If young white males were killed by police at the same rate and under the same circumstances as young black males, the public outrage would put an end to that practice immediately.  The same can be said for the number of innocent civilians being killed by the United States drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, etc.  If the United States were killing that many civilians who were of northern European descent, the outrage would be immediate, intense and incredible.

This lack of respect has lead to a breakdown in the idea of community in the United States, and I am afraid throughout the world.  At the end of the day, it can only be a feeling of true community with all others throughout the world that can put a stop to this senseless violence.  We must remember that we are all human beings, and we must act and react accordingly.  We must not disenfranchise, hate or fear the "others".  We must embrace all, even and perhaps especially those that we disagree with.  If we can truly love and respect each other, the process of radicalisation can be dramatically slowed or maybe even stopped. We are all Charlie.  We are all Eric Garner.  We are all Michael Brown.  We are all Tamir Rice.  We are all the innocent people killed by drone strikes.  We are all each other.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal