Why Does It Always Have To Come Down To A Race Thing?

Over and over I have heard the same question arise from the average person: "Why does it always have to come down to a race thing?"

It's on Fox "news", it's in my news feed, it's been tweeted, etc. etc. Often followed by them saying that the don't care about color, and why don't people just do the right thing? Why does there have to be such disparity? Why can't people just get along? Why can't we just trust the system? Why can't you just use the courts to get justice? Isn't this just about upholding the law and those breaking it?

Why does it always have to come down to a race thing?

Why?

You asked (or at least read the questions), so I will tell you.

The problem comes down to understanding the issue and the scope. It is not simply a matter of respecting authority, and you cannot view it as an isolated incident and be honest. Understand that that while you may not care what race, color or creed a person is, many people in positions of authority, positions of control and just in large numbers do care about what race, color or creed a person is, and they bring those biases, prejudices and beliefs into the systems that should have no place for them...but time and time again they do, as evidenced by the over representation of brown people within the prison system, the armed forces and the impoverished neighborhoods across the country. You ask why does there have to be such a disparity and the answer is that our country was built upon that disparity and ingrained in our way of life.

Our country was constructed on slave labor and the creation of a permanent underclass. I don't mean this in the general way that our high school history covers things, with a fleeting glance that talks about plantation slaves and cruel overseers, Jefferson Davis and the South versus the North...I mean it in the little known facts that are a significant part of our history and laying the foundation for the society that exists today. The fact that Wall Street was where you could rent out your slaves for the day, that the Capitol building in Washington DC was built by slave labor, that many companies started with slave labor to build themselves up. That it was so interwoven into our culture that we didn't give it a second thought. For 242 years in this country, one group was in bondage, providing free labor and economic growth that bolstered the coffers and position of another, all while enduring rape, murder, mutilation, and all manner of atrocities that psychologically and morally decimated the soul of brown people. And once slavery was abolished, the same practices continued under Jim Crow LEGALLY until just over 50 years ago. As a people we have been enslaved longer than we have been free, and when you add in Jim Crow, we are barely two generations out.

This is not hyperbole or rhetoric, these are facts, easily researched, difficult to read and accept. They are a part of our history. A dark and shameful part, that we don't like to think about because it hurts.

It hurts to think about it and this makes people defensive. Why? Because when you talk about white privilege and the advantages gleaned from it, people automatically assume there's an active component. That there is an accusation inherent in talking about White privilege that they actively participated in the oppression...

No.

The vast majority of White people had no more to do with the development of the system and the creation of the advantages anymore than the vast majority of Black people had anything to do with the disparity that exists for them...of course some people erroneously believe that Black people are exclusively responsible for the position they are in, but the truth is that these are integrally linked. You cannot have one without the other. They are the results of the circumstances of our country's history and action and even inaction.

To put this in perspective, think of a relay race with two teams. The rules are set by the first team because it's their track (well, actually the claimed it from another school that was still in session, but I digress) and they decide the members of the second team have to carry them for the first half of the race. At that point the first team climbs down, rested and ready, but only they get credit for the number of laps already run. So the second team not only is starting from a point further back in the cycle of the race, but they are tired and worn down. So they have to run harder and faster in order to just keep up, to compete they are going to have to run twice as much. Meanwhile, the first team keeps questioning why the second can't compete, after all, they both started at the same point on the track at the halfway mark...

And to bring it full circle, it's a relay race, with each generation being new to the race, but being handed a baton that carries with it the position and the laps completed by the previous generation. So even though they weren't involved at the beginning, they claim the position of their forerunners...

That is what privilege and systemic racism is in an allegorical nutshell.

It's not about wanting it, or liking it, or pursuing it, it's where you are in the race.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being…Black in America

Over the past several weeks, our country has been inundated with images, articles , rhetoric and friendship ending soundbites around the Michael Brown case, that has sparked a national conversation on the subject of race and race relations in this country. To say the discussion has been divisive would be to call the Winter in Minnesota slightly chilly.

And coming forward from that, people have gotten so entrenched in their positions, so solidified in their defense, that when the clearer, less ambiguous case, the strangulation of Eric Garner, has resulted in the same outcome, they have remained ensconced within positions that defy logic, reason, and, in fact, truth. I cannot recall a time when there were so many speeches and so many people so defensive, so certain of sanctity and so desperate to justify injustice in order to avoid culpability, self reflection and being American…

Wait. What?

Yes, I did say that. I’ll get to that part in a moment.

And I know this will come as a shock, but so many people have gotten their definition of what being American is from pundits and talking heads at bias “news” networks, that they forgot to actually look up the definition and the principles on which our country and rights are based. They hear words that sound good and fit their argument and regurgitate them out into the internet from the brave space behind a computer screen because they don’t have to listen to responses, examine the logic or look people in the eye. It is the conversational equivalent of singing and dancing in your underwear in front of a mirror: no one is there to give you critical feedback and you don’t have to listen to the truth that is staring you right in the face…that you’re just not Star Search material Sherman.

In America, we are happy to condemn tragedy and injustice as long as it is outside of our country: Nazis? Worst people on the planet ever; Khemer Rouge and Cambodia-Horrific human rights violations to be condemned; Idi Amin, Muammar Gaddafi, Slobodan Milošević, Kim Jong-il the list is so plentiful that you could sell trading cards and people would eat them up like they were Skittles. But you begin to turn that lens to the United States and suddenly the unified response against human oppression and tragedy becomes debates on the character of individual victims, criticism of the response of people opposed and defense of the system that exists regardless of its impact. I am quite sure that not every single one of the over six million Jews murdered as part of the Holocaust were model citizens, yet no one ever puts forth an argument of “I Stand With The Nazis”….And nor should they…Ever! We all agree on that. But the minute we start examining the inherent oppression and extermination of African Americans in the U.S. it becomes a squirrelly conversation that brings out the inner bigot in people cloaked under defending the Constitution, the 2nd Amendment and of course freedom...well, freedom for some people...

And freedom is the issue at stake here.

Now I know that people are confused, and wondering why someone like Michael Brown would inspire the expression of outrage and be an individual that protesters would rally around. They think that it invalidates the anger and indignation, that protesting following the outcome is pointless, and yet Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States who said "A society will be judged by how it treats its weakest members"...

But it is not Michael Brown alone or specifically that people are angry about. It is the sheer injustice of a system ingrained with racism and from individuals in positions of power and especially law enforcement, who abuse their sacred trust and privileged position to do harm rather than protect and serve. We are angry at the system and those who abuse their power:

For protecting them, by a mock trial from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For exciting domestic insurrections amongst us

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury...They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

Those are not my words, they are Thomas Jefferson’s with a minor tweak or two from the Declaration of Independence. Stop and think about that for a minute. Better yet go read the full text and recognize that the charges leveled in there, many of which are reflective of our country today, led to the wide spread protests, and often violent insurrections that would eventually lead to the overthrowing of the government to establish something more just and fair to the people…think about that and then turn back to the protests and riots and maybe you’ll understand that what’s happening is not wrong, it’s American.

Yes, all the things happening in Ferguson and across the country, all of the actions are as American as baseball, George Washington and Apple pie...they are the same beginnings of our first Revolution. How, then, can anyone criticize or condemn these acts and still call themselves an American...How can one not see that the major difference between that one which we hold in such high regards, and this one, is race.

I know it may be hard to wrap your brain around, but it doesn’t make it less true.

“You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.” Morpheus, The Matrix

End Part One

JP Calling Orson, Come In Orson...

I don't generally mourn entertainers. They, by definition, entertain. I do enjoy them, but they are paid to do a job that some do well, some do poorly and most fall somewhere in the middle. Whether it's movie or pop star, comic or cartoonist, writer or sports star, they are regular people with a skill (hopefully) and a career. They may have green room peculiarities but they put their pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us...they are mortal.

Robin Williams was not. He was so much more.

Robin had an infectious style that couldn't help but make you laugh; he had a provocative mind that couldn't help but make you think; and he had a careless abandon that couldn't help but make you dream. He was not merely a comedian or movie star, he was an artist.

I grew up with Robin...well not literally, but ever since I first saw him appear to Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) on Happy Days as Mork from Ork, I was hooked. When Mork & Mindy started, I was right there watching religiously each week, saying "Shazbot" when things pissed me off and "Na-nu Na-nu" when I wanted to say goodbye. My years can be marked by the time a grown up Peter Pan showed up on the show (ironically enough) or the arrival of Mearth (Jonathan Winters) his son as Orkans aged backwards (sorry Benjamin Button, Mork was here first). And I'm pretty sure Raquel Welch jump started puberty for me when she showed up as Captain Nirvana. I learned how to first wade into the pool of irreverent silliness with Robin and never looked back.

But like so many of us, life does not stand still. I marveled at him in Popeye, expanded my horizons in The World According to Garp and laughed and cried in Good Morning Vietnam; each new venture peeled back a layer of the man, exposing another dimension that was as deep and crazy as the former. But it was in 1989 when the world changed for me with Dead Poet's Society. I had enjoyed many a movie over the years, but that was the first time I was touched to a depth that reached my soul. Life seemed so much more after that. I came out of the theater wanting to form my own DPS, because the words of that film had resonated so deeply I though I might never be the same again. I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...

It was then that Robin became my muse.

I listened to his comedy performances and laughed out loud each time my world seemed dim. Every movie he did broadened my horizons and stirred fresh imaginings. The Fisher King brought home all the crazy ideas that roll through my head and the imaginary life that awaits out there. And Good Will Hunting encouraged me to find what is out there and not be barricade behind defenses and pain. Patch Adams made me want to be a doctor, leaving with me the lasting message that everyone brings something to the table.

But I think the movie I most loved him in, besides DPS was Hook. No other person could have epitomized the boy who never grew up than Robin. It was the character he was meant to play and he breathed life into that role so deeply that I regularly shout "bangarang" at random. It constantly reminds me to use my imagination and dream bigger. That life is full of wonder. Pan the Avenger will ever be my hero, my guide and my happy thought.

Words cannot fully express what Robin meant to me, but I will be forever grateful that my life was touched and transformed by this man that I never met in person, but shared an almost metaphysical connection to across the imaginary distance that separates us from one another. I cannot thank him, but I hope somehow that he knows now of at least this one life that he changed and channeled and made better through the gift of his craft. He was my hero. He was my friend. And I will always remember him and no matter what the future may bring or what dreams may come.

Fare ye well Robin Williams, fare ye well, I'll meet you on the other shore.