You’re not, “Just as angry.”

I try very hard not to get into hot topics on FB because I think meaning gets lost when given in snipets.  However, I am so uncomfortable with a family member’s post about George Floyd’s death, that I had to respond.

*I edited the original post because I realized this morning, in being so upset, I didn't include the original post, which would have been helpful to give context for my response.  Duh.*

I left my family member's information out of this, because while this person did decide to publish on Facebook, an internationally open platform, I don't have this person's permission to distribute his/her thoughts to everyone and it IS a private account.  

This is the original post from my family member:

The matter of George Floyd angers me as much as anyone. When it first came out I didn’t even watch the video because violence, torture and injustice towards any human is something that turns my stomach, I hate it. I don’t even watch boxing because I don’t understand how someone could go out and beat a man within inches of his life and we actually consider that entertainment. 

With that said the response of our nation has been none better. We’ve made this a race issue when it’s an issue of injustice and police brutality. It’s no different than a politician committing crimes of injustice towards humanity and getting off for it or some millionaire/ billionaire committing crimes against humanity and getting off with a slap on the wrist. 

I took a minute to review the number of people shot to death by police in the United States by race. Whites are killed to the proportion of almost DOUBLE that of blacks or any other race that made the list. No one talks about that, it doesn’t spark national outrage or concern. If the case was a white male and a white officer it wouldn’t have got much if any media time at all. The fact that injustice is happening in our nation should concern us! But the media portrays a story of division and we fall for it. Why? Because they have an agenda to divide us! They want us to feel alone and separated from one another because then we won’t unify with our brothers and sisters and speak out concerning real issues. Not that racism isn’t a real issue.

But consider that I’ve had white cops get in my face and berate me with questions, try to instigate a response, and accuse me of things to try and get a rise out of me so they could pin more than one violation on me. All this over minor traffic violations. Then I’ve had cops respond kindly and with care. I’ve also had white friends who resisted arrest and have gotten the hell beaten out of them by police. I’m not saying that this case is not about race, but no one really knows that one way or another. Not one racial remark or past behavior gives us clue to this. You just see two humans, one abusing power over another. So here are the real statistics. You tell me, does this chart show a story of race or injustice?

https://www.statista.com/…/people-shot-to-death-by-us-poli…/

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Here is my response:

This is said in a loving, yet very concerned, voice.

While I can appreciate your anger, I fully disagree with your sentiments.  

This is 100% about race.  

The numbers that you show are not statistics- they are unrepresentative numerical snapshots  of a greater statistical analysis.  To say that because the number of whites killed is higher than of blacks on the table you show means more whites are killed than blacks is misleading and suggests that in this scenario whites are the ones to be afraid.  However, this table must be taken in context.  If 1,000 white men are killed by police but there are 1,000,000,000,000 white men, then 1,000 is not even .1% of the white population.  If there are 50 black men killed by police- a number significantly less than 1,000- but there are only 100 black men, then half the black male population has been killed off.  

Police officers “getting in your face and asking you questions” is not the same as you being thrown in the ground walking through a park late at night simply because as officer thought you shouldn’t be there- an event that has happened to a colleague of mine - an ATTORNEY- several times because of his skin color.  You getting pulled over for a “minor traffic violation” - to be clear, you admitted to BREAKING THE LAW- is vastly different than 16 year old Korey Wise, one of the Central Park Five, being tried AS AN ADULT AT 16 and being wrongly convicted of raping and beating a woman in Central Park and going to a maximum security prison for SEVENTEEN YEARS until the real perpetrator confessed.

Yes, I agree with you that this is a case about injustice and police brutality.  

But there is NO DOUBT this IS about race.

Contrary to your claim, what happened to George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and the hundreds of other black men senselessly killed is VASTLY different from “some politician committing crimes against humanity and getting off for it.”

It. Was. A. LIFE.

While I can appreciate your anger, because I know how angry I am, you are not “just as angry as anyone else.”

You are not “just as angry” as any of the black mothers who have lost their black sons through police brutality.

You are not “just as angry” as any black man who experienced police brutality.

You are not “just as angry” as Abner Louima, a black man arrested after his bachelor party from a fabricated story by a police officer and who was beaten in the cop car ride down to the station and then sodomized with a broom stick in the NYPD bathroom.

I agree with you- there are ABSOLUTELY police officers who perform their civic duty with the highest moral code and the most compassionate, loving hearts.  My aunt and my uncle both proudly served and I am honored to be related to them.  Perhaps even 99.9% of the Blue are heroes and worthy of the badge they wear.  

But it’s not 100%.

And no matter what that small percentage is, ONE officer entitled to take the life of another unlawfully is one too many.

It IS about race.  Because what happened to George Floyd would NEVER happen to a white man.

When you get stopped for a “minor traffic violation”- again, KNOWING YOU BROKE THE LAW- your biggest concern is getting additional charges added on.

Our black community is afraid to leave the house because of fear of being pulled over for SKIN COLOR and getting a bullet through the chest.

Your concerns as a white man are vastly different from the concerns of a black man with regard to the police.

For as long as I have known myself, and it’s been a pretty long time, I’ve always been white and I’ve always been a woman.  So that’s the only perspective I can honestly, and validly offer.  As far as I know, I’ve never been black and I’ve never been a man.  So I can’t tell you with authority what that feels like; I can only imagine.

However, in the year 2020, I imagine it’s pretty terrifying.

We DO know this case is about race.  To suggest otherwise is mind boggling.  There have been MILLIONS of remarks and past behaviors that “give clues to this.”  Open any history book and read about the plight of the black man and you will find tens of thousands of “clues” that have led us to where we are today.

You referenced Luke 22:36 in a related post, “he instructed, ‘he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.”  You then went on to say that you “were not a proponent of violence if you can prevent it, but in the case that you cannot, Jesus said go out and buy a gun.”

Our black community and allies have tried to prevent violence; however, they cannot.  So they have taken up their guns.

This is not about “two humans, one abusing power over another.”

It. IS. about. Race.