Tuesday, December 9, 2014

A Call for White Responsibility from a White Man

Following is the most succinct and precise description of white privilege I've ever read, written by a dear friend, in fact our families are friends. It is must reading for all whites who don't understand all the attention and outrage over the murders of unarmed black men by the police.  Enjoy!


White Privilege Equals White Responsibility

When I was 12, I was arrested for popping hood ornaments off of Mercedes and Cadillacs to hang on my fake gold chains. When I was 15, I was arrested for shoplifting a scrimshaw tobacco pipe from a shop at the mall. When I was 20, I was arrested for shoplifting a cordless phone from a department store. These are the times I got caught.

When I was 34, I applied for a job and stated with confidence that I’d never been convicted of any crime. I’m white, and even though I smoked weed, shoplifted, ran red-lights and littered, society saw more value in me than if I had been black. I’m not proud of it; I’m just lucky.

If I had been black, I would have never gotten a pre-trial diversion, a deferred adjudication or any type of leniency from the system. I would have had a record, and I would have had far less opportunity, and I would have never gotten that job that asked if I had been convicted of a crime, and my life would be wildly different today.

I’m white, and I’m terrified of cops. I know what it feels like to have my physical freedom arrested by a police officer. I know what it’s like to be bullied, harassed and put up against a wall by a cop, but I have no idea what it’s like to be black.

I get tense if I pass a cop on the sidewalk, I get flooded with adrenaline and anger when I get pulled over. I know they can do anything to me. In spite of whatever personal rights I might be guaranteed by law, I know they can exercise their authority on my freedom, they can and will intimidate me, and I will operate from a position of fear.

The difference is that while I fear and distrust cops, I live with the confidence that in the eyes of society, for no other reason than the color of my skin, my life is considered more valuable than if I were black.

Let’s imagine that cop is having a bad day, let’s imagine I don’t wanna be fucked with. The cop wants to put me in my place, and I don’t wanna be put in that place. Things escalate, and something happens to me like what has happened to Eric Garner or Mike Brown or Oscar Grant.

I’m white, and I know that in the unlikely event that I am a victim of police brutality, society in general and my “community” will demand that someone be held accountable, that changes be made and that it never happens again.

The painful and terrifying truth is that American society considers my white body and my white life as more valuable than if I were black.

There is a moment in the Eric Garner video when Officer Pantaleo starts to grab Eric Garner in a way that he would never feel entitled to grab me, and that is the moment that has to change in America. The moment the officer felt entitled to exercise force on Eric Garner’s body is unacceptable and pervasive throughout the Black American experience, and it has to change.

When the other officer is pressing Eric Garner’s face into the sidewalk, when the EMTs don’t try to help, when it takes 36 hours to get an official statement from Darren Wilson, when there are no batteries in the camera to document the crime scene, when no one is held responsible, when there is nothing that could be done, when all we have are condolences, when they are all just sad, unfortunate, tragic and isolated events, when politicians, civic leaders, police commissioners, and average white American citizens don’t demand that someone be held accountable, the truth that black lives don’t matter in America is proven and perpetuated.

Maybe we can’t get an indictment, but these incidents expose a far greater systemic racism that we have to address, and white people must demand that it be addressed.

White people in power who are responsible for these cops and these policies and these tragic accidents must GO TO JAIL. They must be reprimanded, they must be shamed, they must be fired, they must be exposed as the most immediate place where we can do better.

The systemic fear of large unarmed black men, the poor decisions, the ongoing use of excessive force must be deemed completely reprehensible, unacceptable, and we as grossly over-privileged white people must give notice to the police forces and public officials of America that we will not stand for it anymore.

Call your local police chiefs, your local district attorney, your local politicians, and let them know that you are giving them notice, that if they allow another tragic accident like what has been happening to unarmed black men across America, you will be in the street, knocking on their door and demanding their resignations.

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