I cannot remember once in my life a person saying, “You can’t do that,” or “You aren’t welcome,” because I am a WASP male. I’ve been with Black American friends or international colleagues, gotten separated in the crowd, then saw them treated in inappropriate ways.
I remember being pushed around in high school by “tough kids,” but that was nothing. I’ve been mocked a few times for my Christian faith, but this was nothing. I’ve been denied certain opportunities or access based upon my professional position or my ability to pay, but this is just economics, not discrimination as such.
Never have I experienced the disrespect, pain, dehumanization, despair of racism.
This makes me want and need to lament and to listen in the wake of George Floyd’s needless gruesome death in the street in the custody of Minneapolis police officers, and the video that went viral sparking protests around the world.
Whether or not the police officer did what he did because Mr. Floyd is Black or otherwise is beside the point. The fact that a white law enforcement official exercised illegal and unnecessary lethal force upon an American citizen, in this case a Black citizen, provides a window into the ugly heart of racism. And this grievous incident is one of a sad pattern.
America must change, once and for all, setting aside the sin of racism.
God forgive me if I have ever conveyed racist attitudes or actions.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
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