“The healing of our society starts when we get in touch with other peoples’ suffering”, Tara Brach
The horrific murder of George Floyd in the streets of Minniapolis by a white police officer on 25 May, 2020 has caused a ripple effect of outrage, anger, pain, heartbreak and weeks of protests demanding change across the United States and the world. Enough is enough. We cannot look away from the racial injustice of a brutal murder of another innocent African American man in bright daylight. We cannot not be outraged. We cannot not be heartbroken. We cannot stay silent. We cannot not join the voices for justice for those in the black communities whose everyday is an injustice. We cannot not feel compassion and solidarity for those who loved him.
We cannot separate ourselves from George Floyd because his humanity is bound and equal to ours.
Racism, black oppression and racial injustice exist everywhere, and George Floyd’s death represents the ultimate fear many blacks wake up with every day in United States. African Americans before George Floyd have led lives that felt as having a “knee on their neck” of their rights, access, opportunities, worth etc. George Floyd’s brutal fate became an earthquake of truth into racial injustice in the United States and across the world. The “black experience” demonstrates that we are still failing to embrace the full humanity and equality of black lives. It is truly a moral emergency that systems and beliefs across our societies still perpetuate the illusion of the inferiority of black lives and discriminate against people because of the race they were born into.
White privilege
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”, Desmond Tutu
Why does Klu Klux Klan still exist? Why are our societies discriminating against people who are born into a different race from our own? Why do blacks more often than whites get stopped or arrested by the police in our streets? Why do we not learn about the unjust, inhumane and primitive trade of slaves as part of our history in Western countries? Why are we avoiding the conversations concerning the inconvenient truth of the fact that racism still exists everywhere?
A core part of white privilege is to look away from racism because we can and decide that “it doesn’t concern us” because we can. This is only possible because we have decided to separate ourselves from the humanity of others – or even dehumanize the other. When we do separate ourselves from the injustice happening to George Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery, Brianna Taylor and others before them, we are not staying neutral, we are indirectly standing for the injustice.
The only right and moral stand to take is to be an antiracist according to Ibram Kendi’s book “How To Be an Antiracist”.
George Floyd’s fate became an earthquake of truth and we can never unsee what we saw. The outrage over his death has sparked a movement. A movement that is challenging us to not look away and to instead look at ourselves. The moment right now is essentially about being better humans together as New York Times Bestseller, Author and Speaker Austin Channings refers to it, to vulnerably rumble with the reality of white privilege – and rise to our responsibility for correcting the wrongs of racism.
George Floyd has become a call for action in the US and across the world.
Be the Change
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept”, Angela Davis
Firstly, we need to embrace the fact that this moment in time is concerning us all and that we can be the change through cultivating antiracism in our own lives, families, communities and societies.
Secondly, we need to be brave in engaging in conversations, asking questions and listening to the experience of blacks and other racial groups in our societies. We need to lean into this moment and be humbly learning and unlearning how and where we can play a part in acting and advocating for antiracism.
Thirdly, racism is rooted in a hierarchy of human value and it is reflected in how we see the world and each other. To correct the wrongs of racism we need to rumble with the vulnerability of seeing and being with where we are run by white privilege in our lives, also when we may feel uncomfortable or discover that our beliefs or actions are actually racist.
Finally, we can scan the spheres in which we take part whether it is within Government departments, private sector, kindergartens, schools, supermarkets, police, sports, media etc. and consciously consider where and how we can play an active role in correcting the wrongs of racism, stand for antiracism and even out the inequalities that face blacks and other racial groups every day.
Years back Martin Luther King said, that justice truly is about restoring love in our societies: “Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love”. Love is our common ground, and in that place, once we see ourselves in each other – no otherness, separation or racism can continue to exist. Now is the time to commit to make antiracism the new norm.
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