What keeps some white folks from joining with those who long-suffer the legacy of prejudice, unequal treatment by the justice system. and racism in our country? It should not be flippantly explained away as hardheartedness. entitlement, or a sense of privilege. Mostly it boils down to fear. When we are confronted by awful truths that can no longer be ignored or denied, we become frightened about the consequences.
How will our marginalized fellow human beings rise up to demand change? What will be lost or taken away in the process? Rather than join in solidarity to find common ground, fear leads some into counter-retaliation, blame, and more deeply rooted denial. The result in usually violent.
“We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution. We preach freedom around the world, but are we to say to the world, and . . .to each other that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes ...?” ~ President John F. Kennedy,
Perhaps we must be shocked out of our complacency in order to join hands in solidarity. It took graphic photographs of non-violent protesters who braved Bull Connors vicious police dogs in Birmingham, and absolute resistance by Governor George Wallace to accept change in 1963, that President Kennedy was fully awakened to the plight of disenfranchised black Americans. He said that the images and situation on the ground made him sick. He found it intolerable. The result was our Civil Rights Act of 1964.
I am encouraged by the good that is coming from the protests of 2020. It appears that we are once again being awakened from the deep slumber of denial. We have been forced to view unspeakable brutality with video recordings leaving no detail spared. Entering into solidarity with those so oppressed seems to be the only moral and right thing to do. We can put our fears aside when we join together to bring about all of the changes, guaranteed in the Constitution "in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."