None of Us Deserve Peace Until We All Deserve Peace
By Tal J Zlotnitsky
Today, I protested in front of the heavily fortified White House with my brothers and sisters of many races, all of us united in our grief and outrage at yet another act of depravity by yet another police officer against yet another unarmed, non-resisting black man — George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Around us, as city after city in our nation convulsed in anger, recrimination and violence, voices on both the right and the left (though especially and most stridently on the right) called for the restoration of civic order, and especially an end to rioting, looting and random acts of violence.
On the surface, the condemnation of the violence and destruction, and the demand for a return to normalcy, is reasonable and just. After all, reasoned voices proclaim, how are business owners or citizens in Manhattan, Chicago, Louisville, Los Angeles or Seattle at fault for the acts of a depraved police officer in Minneapolis?
They’re not, of course. But nevertheless, the violence and destruction — yes, even the rioting and looting — has a noble purpose to serve at this time. Those who are demanding peaceful protesting and an end to the discomfort of seeing these scenes play out in living rooms all across America, fail to recognize that it is only through discomfort — felt by all in a sustained manner — that most white Americans could ever begin to understand the depth of anger, fear and despair that our black and brown brothers and sisters — who have been held under the oppressive boot of overt and covert racism and an unjust criminal justice system for generations — feel every day.
I’d ask the soccer mom in Nashville or the conservative-leaning dad in Dallas: How does it feel to see your city looted and burned? Do you feel impotence and rage to see innocent, small businesses owners and ordinary Americans get hurt physically and financially through no fault of their own, just because they or their businesses happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time? Are you upset that law enforcement is not protecting your family and the public from these senseless acts of violence? Do you want it to stop?
If you are and you do, then my message to you is: Good! I’m glad.
I’m glad not because I am an anarchist, or someone that enjoys seeing any fellow human being suffering unjustly. I’m heartbroken at any senseless loss of life and destruction of property, especially in communities where resources are scarce to begin with.
But yes, I am glad. I am glad because, if you can internalize and bottle up how you feel right at this moment — some combination of outrage, fear, anxiety — then you may scratch the surface of understanding how your black and brown neighbors, co-workers and fellow citizens feel every time they come in contact with a police officer.
Imagine that this looting and rioting simply wouldn’t stop, no matter how much you demanded justice? No matter how many times you tried to explain to your fellow citizens the pain and fear fear that you feel? No matter how many times you petitioned your government to protect you? No matter how many peaceful rallies you held? It just kept happening, again and again.
No. Matter. What.
Imagine that your life consisted of dodging looters and arsonists from now on. Imagine that every time your child left your home, you feared that she could get caught in a random act of mob justice, even in communities that are typically safe, like downtown Nashville or the Magnificent Mile in Chicago.
How would you feel? What would you do? Would you accede to demands for peace and restoration of order if you knew from past experience that your doing so would guarantee that a day, a week, or a month from now the streets would burn again?
OR, would you simply insist — as the fellow protesters at the White House did today — that if there was no justice this time, there will be no peace?
Would you demand an end, once and for all, to the corrosive pain and uncertainty and fear that such a life would entail if you had to endure it?
You would. Of course you would.
My fellow privileged Americans, whose skin is white: We don’t deserve peaceful streets until those streets are equally peaceful for all of us, regardless of race, or religion, or sexual orientation. We don’t deserve the certitude of “law & order” unless all of us could count on it equally. We don’t deserve to get back to our normal lives, until our black and brown brothers and sisters can finally be allowed their God-given right to the exact. damn. same.
Violence sucks. Looting sucks. Riots suck. But these acts of terror all serve a useful purpose: To make us all uncomfortable and less safe — economically, physically, and mentally.
The riots and mayhem represent the bitter but necessary medicine this nation needs right now in order to finally embrace systemic change when it comes to racism in general, and racist policing in particular.
In the absence of this change, none of us who are fortunate enough — due to the pigmentation of our skin alone — to avoid dehumanizing and life-threatening acts of racist policing, deserve to feel safe again.
