Inflammatory Times

Sometimes, in unprecedented times such as now, truths become crystal clear--that life is valuable, that friendship makes hard things bearable, and that we have ingrained flaws. Not that being flawed is solely our fault, but correcting--or even acknowledging--those flaws most certainly is our responsibility.

For example, when I was in elementary school, I was under the impression that race relations had been resolved during the civil rights movement. Turns out that was wrong, but I still had no clear grasp of the extent of the problem; I next thought that affirmative action was stupid and unnecessary. And then, at my next progression of mind, I thought that I was becoming fairly non-biased and non-discriminatory. And I was in that mindset until I listened to the experiences of people of color.

My new truth: there is no way I can fully grasp what it is like to face constant discrimination of a kind that threatens my life. I suspect I will always have some bit of bias, because how can I exorcise bias unless I have the lived-it, breathed-it, full experience that would reveal truth? I don't think I will ever be able to truthfully say that my privileges are equal to those of another race---but I can say when I see inequality [a lot like statistics. a research study won't say that two different treatments are equal, but they do say that treatment A is "non-inferior" to treatment B].

We have unequal treatment between whites and people of color. Protesting the violence faced by people of color right now does not mean that no one cares for white people. But that violence is the priority concern right now, because it is the most imminent. 

Whether we stand, kneel, tweet, or shout, we need to bring attention to the problem, so that we can better envision a solution.