Saturday, June 6, 2020
The Way Out
I have nothing to tell you that you don't already know. And you think of it whatever way you think of it. I don't expect to change anyone's mind.
This country, at the very least, is built on racism. I'm not looking for an argument. It just is. Many places are built on racism. Racism has been critical to Australian culture. Just a few minutes ago, I heard on the radio some Australian activist who is working to incite a challenge to anti-aboriginal racism. Yeah, yet another aboriginal person just died in police custody. This is for them what black people who are disproportionately arrested (disproportionate to the likelihood that a Caucasian person would be arrested for the same alleged offense) and disproportionately convicted, and disproportionately punished is for us.
South Africa is built on racism.
Racism is sort of rampant in the world. If it makes you feel better, it's part of human nature to form packs, like dogs and many other beasts, and every pack of "us" requires some designation of "them."
And it's not only racial prejudice. Sometimes, the "them" is Jews. In the past in this country, it's been whoever was the current most common immigrant, and it's been Irish, Germans, and whoever else.
It seemed almost, in a twisted way, to make a kind of perverted sense at the time of WWII for Americans to declare Japanese-AMERICANS to be the "them." Likewise, if you ignore critical elements of reality, it seems almost logical today to call Muslims of various nationalities, including AMERICAN, "them."
So now, because, this particular week, of the assassination of George Floyd, we are again rising up. We had a big, and partially successful, uprising which amounted to the American Civil War. Then, there was the civil rights movement, with some notable names. Each uprising accomplished something, but none of them, individually or in the aggregate, suppressed the problem enough. And that's the only realistic goal. I told you, humans are pack animals, the "usses" will always need "thems," and the underlying anthropological problem will not disappear. Never.
I'll give you a glaring example. Was Barack Obama the first American "black" president? And why was he "black?" What qualifies him to be "black" identically qualifies him to be "white." He is precisely 50% of each. But there is a need to declare him an us or a them. Even he would say he's black. I don't know what that sounds like when he says it to his mother, but as far as I know, that's what he calls himself.
So, "thanks" to George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, and a slew of very recent victims, not to mention the massive throngs of remote and forgotten victims, we appear to be trying again. And there seems to be real momentum this time. Whether or not it will last is unclear. But it feels like something.
All day, every day, I get e-mails. So many of them want a donation, and it's to a variety of kinds of groups. If I gave the minimum donation to every worthy cause, I would go broke pretty fast. So I don't donate. I don't disagree, and I'm not unsympathetic, but I can't afford to respond to this with money.
It's a really weird time in the world right now, with the coronavirus, and even if I wanted to go join a protest gathering, I wouldn't do it. My daughter got heavy-handed with me, and she twisted my arm to come see her and my son-in-law and my grandchildren in Massachusetts last month. But I lost my nerve, and I canceled the trip the day before I was supposed to go. My daughter has applied new torque, and now, I have a flight booked for July. It's very possible I'll cancel that, too. I'm afraid of airports and airplanes. And anyway, Chuck Ross just offered me the use of his diesel car, and I'll give him my electric car, so I can drive myself there. I might do that.
But the point is, we don't have a lot of great choices as to what to do to contain this racist aggression. And to make matters vastly worse, the aggressors are way too often the police. "Protect and serve" whom? This will take a huge and sustained effort.
Today, I got a piece of mail I've been wondering about, and for which I've been waiting. It's a Dade County form that represents a request I would be making, and what I would be requesting is a mail-in ballot. And I don't even have to fill out the form. There's a phone number I can call, and a website where I can just do this myself. And that's the answer. We have institutionalized, formalized, and legitimized racism, and all other forms of prejudice, by electing people who will enact these primitive and destructive urges for us. And we have to replace them. We all have to vote.
And I'm sorry to say it, but the support of racism exists on one side of the "aisle" far more than it does on the other. And that side of the aisle is well aware of this imbalance. That's why that side of the aisle works hard to minimize voter participation, which they do in a collection of ways. They know that most Americans don't favor them, and if everyone voted, or everyone who wanted to vote voted, they would be out on their...ears.
So, look for the form. At this point, don't assume you'll be voting in person at the polls. Fill out the form. Get a mail-in ballot. And vote. If the coronavirus has receded by November, then you can go to the polls, if you prefer (I do), and vote there. But vote. You're not out living your normal life right now. You're mostly home alone. You have a lot of time to think. You know who the "good guys" are.
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Funny you should mention. I had that sentence, and struggled with it, and finally removed it. I can't give you a clear explanation for why I removed it. The sentiment is absolutely there. And the issue is painfully real.
ReplyDeleteSo I owe you an apology for having removed that sentence. You're completely right. It belonged there.
Another funny thing is the conversation I have had a number of times with right wingers who say they don't approve of violence and agitated revolt. I remind them that the American "founding fathers" were 100% guilty of precisely that. Just exactly as you say.
PS: The web address to request vote-by-mail ballots is www.iamelectionready.org. The process takes about two minutes. You don't need any information you don't have in your head. You can request a mail-in ballot for the August primary, or for the November general election, or for both.
ReplyDeleteMac, a young actor named Justice Smith (I've never heard of him) agrees with you: https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/celebrity/justice-smith-comes-out-as-queer-calls-for-queer-and-trans-inclusion-in-black-lives-matter/ar-BB158omk?li=BBnb7Kz
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I was reminded of one of the reasons, and I'm not sure if it was the main one, that I removed the sentence with the content you suggested. I refer to people whose preference in romantic partners is people of the same gender as they are as homosexual. I do not use the word "gay," since "gay" doesn't automatically include lesbians (etc, etc, nowadays), and I dislike all the euphemisms anyway. In the case of Justice Smith, he is now using the word "queer," which is more or less of a bad word coming out of the mouth of anyone who doesn't mean it with affection and respect, which is more subtlety and ambiguity than I think is healthy for discourse. Funny enough, just this past week, I was watching a Chappelle bit in which Dave Chappelle, who commonly uses the word "nigger," made clear that "nigger" sounds to him like a bad word -- like fightin' words -- coming out of the mouth of someone who isn't black. I don't approve of those kinds of manipulative politics. So, if I can't comfortably use the word homosexual, and know that no one will be up my butt about it, then that contributes to a decision I will make not to bother even to reference the matter.
It feels to me as if that was somehow not the only reason I cut that sentence, but it was one. I think I was also starting to feel I was getting unnecessarily far afield. It was the last sentence in the "And it's not only racial prejudice" paragraph. I went far enough to make what I thought was the relevant point, and I just chose not to extend it one more step, even though, as I said, I completely agree with you. It had been on my mind, too.
Yeh, that's a tough one, the "queer" word, which takes on meaning other than as a catch-all for gender/sexual identities, I think. I think. I don't use it because I honestly don't understand it well, even though my more woke husband has tried to explain it to me several times. (My husband is also gay, BTW.) He's also tried to explain "woke" several times, and I likely just misused that word. I don't use the alphabet of "gay" variations either, because there always seems to be another letter added that I forget or get in the wrong order. I'm gay, and I just use "gay" to mean all those "thems." At least I mean well.
ReplyDeleteWell, my offer and encouragement were not acted on, and I was not given permission. So, this comment will reference an "anonymous" person.
ReplyDeleteOne blog reader wrote to me privately, even though I asked that all discussion be public, to point out that the first colonist who died in the American Revolutionary War was Chrispus Attucks, who was black. The reader said s/he knows that, because it was part of a high school social studies curriculum several decades ago. Props duly given, according to the reader.
I replied that I agree that blacks have fought in all wars involving this country, that they have generally fought in segregated units, that they were not treated as equals, or even treated well, and I asked the reader to consider that it might not be a coincidence that a black person was the "first killed" in the American Revolution. I did not get a response. This conversation occurred two days ago.
In the meantime, right wing moron Ken Cuccinelli from Virginia has proposed that George Floyd's life would not have been spared, even if Floyd had been Caucasian. Cuccinelli's spin is that the problem was not racism at all. It was that Chauvin, the cop, is a bully, and he would similarly have bullied anyone. In fact, Cuccinelli has presumably done some sort of study or calculation or thought experiment or something, and he's concluded that "There are individuals who are racist. They're a small number." He concludes that "I would suggest that a bigger problem that can be filtered and trained for is simply bullying." He adds that he suspects Chauvin has left a trail of evidence of his nasty nature. Cuccinelli does not explain how a rampant and murderous bully got himself admitted to the police academy, how he graduated, how he got hired, and why he's been on the force for as long as he has. Many people appear to have dropped many balls. And finally, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf adds that "Painting law enforcement with a broad brush of systemic racism is really a disservice to the men and women who put on the badge -- the uniform -- every day; risk their lives every day to protect the American people." (Violins all cued up here?)
So, Cuccinelli offers to distract from the blatant racism by reframing the problem as non-denominational bullying, says that yeah, maybe there could be racism in the country, but only a "small" amount, and it's inconsequential to the recurring matters at hand, and Wolf scolds us for being unappreciative of cops who work to protect us, at their own peril. He doesn't get mixed up in which of us the cops work to protect, and on which of us they act out their presumed resentment that we're not appreciative enough.
Fred, as a psychiatrist, can you speak to the topic of psychological tests/interviews that might reveal that applicants to police academies might be racists or have violent tendencies? While we deal with the racists cops in the system, surely there must be ways to keep them from entering it in the first place, huh?
ReplyDeleteThe short answer is no. Psychiatrists generally don't perform psychological tests. Psychologists do that. One route, without getting into the technicalities, is what's called projective tests, that can reveal things even the subject (test-taker) doesn't consciously know about him- or herself. Again, it's psychologists who administer and interpret these tests. The other route is talking to the person, and what we call taking a history. And of course, there's investigating people, to find out what they've done in the past. A scrappy school kid, who got into fights a lot, is likely to be an aggressive adult. Or, if it wasn't obvious, or there were no pre-indicators, and someone gets admitted to the police academy, his or her behavior and capacity for relating adaptively can be observed and understood there.
DeleteInterestingly, Derek Chauvin was reportedly accused several or many times of overaggressive or even illegal behavior, even once he was on the force. But the report I read said he was never found "guilty," and he was not relieved of duty or fired. I have no idea what that's about. I don't know how he kept attracting such negative attention, if he never did anything wrong. Unless the police are not good and effective about "policing" themselves. And if they're not, then people like George Floyd eventually pay the price for that. But one way or the other, assassinations like the one Chauvin perpetrated on Floyd don't spring from nothing. Onlookers at the scene saw the problem, and they asked Chauvin to stop. So there was already something wrong with Chauvin. And I doubt no one, over some number of years, and various situations, had any indication that this was coming.
Fred and other readers ... if you're not aware, newer village resident Alex Madeja has organized a vigil for George Floyd for 7p this evening at the Rec Center. Because the facility is closed inside and out (and in the interest of social distancing), Alex is merely inviting residents to walk around the Rec Center wearing masks, staying on the sidewalk and off the street, and being present with positive energy aimed at solving the problem of systemic racism in this country. With or without signs of protest, I hope to see as many residents there as possible, staying "in bounds" and sharing right mindedness and speaking out against racism. If you have mobility issues or just don't feel like walking, bring a chair, and sit in the parking spaces and share your support with the walkers. And, certainly bring kids of all ages for a real-life civics lesson. The forces of good willing, those kids will someday tell their kids, "I can't really remember when our great country was racist, even though I was alive then. But, I do remember my parents taking me to a local protest. I was there when we figured it out!" We’re on the verge of real change, and every little protest is part of the solution.
ReplyDelete