“My freedom doesn’t end where your fears begin.”

“Fake crisis, Dr. Fauci is wrong!”

“The cure is deadlier than COVID, no virus cancels the constitution!”

Less than one month into the nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the Coronavirus, protests began. The economy at a standstill and unemployment rates at Depression-era highs, people marched to demand the right to work and later, the right to eschew face masks.  

At their state’s capitols, citizens blocked traffic, swarmed restricted areas and audaciously compared themselves to esteemed freedom fighters such as the late Rosa Parks…..even as they strapped themselves with weapons and screamed in the faces of law enforcement. 

What do those events all have in common?

Time and again,  no matter what size of the protest, as long as the participants were white, police officers have no problems limiting physical force or recognizing protesters’ human rights.

However, when George Floyd was accused of fraud at store in Minneapolis, and detained by law enforcement, his pleas and compliance meant nothing. And from the looks of the horrific viral video, so did Mr. Floyd’s life. For nearly 9 full minutes, despite his cries of pain and telling the officer he couldn’t breathe, the officer kept his knee firmly wedged in Floyd’s neck. 

8 MINUTES, 46 SECONDS.

Three other officers offered no assistance, yet kept watch. Seven minutes into the ordeal, after the 46 year old man fell unconscious, an ambulance was called, but done too late to save Mr. Floyd. 

Although the officers were immediately fired, and the FBI has resolved to investigate the matter, I cannot help but believe that this will be another repeat of what’s already gone on before: more marches, protests and hashtags, no jail time for the officers and attempts to ‘try the victim’ in the media to justify the brutal inhumanity displayed by police officers who were allegedly trained to ‘protect and serve,’ but only seem to remember that training when encountering people who are white. And too many people, especially those in positions to make meaningful change, appear content with that deadly status quo and are committed to overlooking the obvious: the double standards, hypocrisy, and racism that fuels how African-Americans are mistreated.  

 Portraying melanin as a threatening trait and whiteness as a shield of superiority has been in practice for centuries. In this nation alone, branding it as a sign of superiority to justify the theft of lands and resources—-while destroying indigenous people or stealing them from their lands to enslave them, for example—- was underscored by lopsided laws written to maintain a permanent underclass. Branding what they could no longer control as beastly and subhuman, alleviated any guilt from those heinous acts. 

2020 is a watershed in more ways than one: what was once acceptable as ‘normal’ can no longer remain such. Inequities at every level must be addressed and blatant bigotry accepted as policy, in a nation that is becoming less and less white. What moral ground, or true progress, can be claimed by those practicing a Jim Crow mindset, all while telling Blacks to not believe the statistics video evidence OR their ‘lying’ eyes? You can’t accuse people of “pulling a race card” that they didn’t create. 

The late, great James Baldwin left us nearly 40 years ago, but his words continue to resonate with power and prescience: “ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” The author and activist also dropped this soul-shattering gem: “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”

Half-full nail salons and limiting gym access are inconveniences: knees pressed into one’s neck for suspected larceny is oppression. Knowing, yet denying the differences, demonstrates an investment in seeing us as lesser than. And sooner or later, the owing price is higher than any society wants to pay.