6/1
Over the weekend, throughout the US, there has been mass protests condemning the unfortunate death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white police officer, AGAIN!
As a white woman, this happens way to much. If I was a black mother, having had to have “the talk” with my son is heartbreaking. Will this ever stop? A week before in Georgia, two white men, associated with law enforcement, targeted a black man in their neighborhood, for running, (he actually was out for a run). There had been robberies in the area, and they thought he looked suspicious running, in a pair of shorts, no less. They felt the need to confront him with a gun. There was a struggle and the gun went off and the black man was shot and killed. If that was a white man running in a pair of shorts, would they have stopped and confronted him, I don’t think so. These are within 2 weeks of each other. It is a constant news story that I am sick of hearing about. Will this ever stop. Yes I agree with All Lives Matter, but Black Lives Matter is a different situation, as they are being targeted by certain law enforcement.
I’ve always been aware o prejudice. Growing up we lived in a nice suburban neighborhood, where the top of the hill was all black and the whites lived further down the hill. This was middle school. They called our school bus, the African Queen. The black kids took up the back of the bus by choice and would randomly pick on a white boy or girl and gang up and beat them up. The white bus drivers would do nothing. We had a black bus driver who lived in the neighborhood, who was the only one where they behaved because he knew all their parents. This experience did not make me hate blacks at all. I was friends with a black girl and was at her house a few times. The first time I saw a picture of black Jesus. Even then, being raised a Catholic, thought “why not”.
Back to George Floyd. Many protests across the US and even in Europe. A lot of these were peaceful and we’re finally seeing some beautiful video of protesters and cops coming together to mourn the loss of George Floyd and protest the continuing practice of targeting and killing black men. There are a lot of protests getting violent and destructive. Many businesses and vehicles getting torched and looted. This is just WRONG!! Watching people, black and white, taking tv’s and anything they can get their hands on and destroying businesses, owned by blacks and whites. How is that possibly helping an already bad situation? It’s very sad to watch and think, “Is this ever going to stop”. Maybe this will change the targeting of black men, but I doubt it. I do believe in peaceful protests, but I haven’t seen them make a huge difference. What about the Million Man March, what about the Women’s March? What about the surge of protests after the shooting at Sandy Hook, Parkland high school in FL and many others crying out for better gun control laws. Yes they got heard, but unfortunately it seems they weren’t heard enough to make changes.
Now I ask, “where is our leader through all this?” Well President Trump is doing what he does best; blaming others, and tweeting violence, “first looting, then shooting”, then claiming he didn’t mean it that way. Never addressing the citizens of the United States, reassuring and showing understanding or compassion. He thrives in tumultuous situations. He’s quick on executive orders for things he personally doesn’t like but not on anything of importance to benefit us Americans.