Lest We Forget: This Civil Unrest Started with The Murder of a Black Man [View all]

[MineralMan]

A lot of people appear to have forgotten that, I think. They're talking about looting and rioting, but not about George Floyd, who was murdered by a white cop in Minneapolis.

Perhaps they don't want to think about the systemic racism that led to that. Perhaps they don't want to think about their own discomfort around people of color. Perhaps they don't want to ask themselves why they don't travel through some neighborhoods in their own city.

I don't know why people are forgetting that, but all of this activity in all of those cities began when a white cop put his knee on the neck of a black man and ended his life. That is why people are in the streets. That is why cities have curfews at night right now. That is why the cameras are showing images of people blocking freeways and assembling in the streets.

What is going on has an initial cause. We need to remember that and not let later actions take our minds off that. A white cop killed a black man over a fake $20 bill. Now, I don't know about you, but I probably wouldn't recognize a counterfeit $20 bill if I held one in my hand. If I gave one to a clerk, who told me it was bogus, I'd say, "Really? Here's another one." If the police were called, I'd tell them how that fake $20 came to be in my wallet. They wouldn't arrest me. They wouldn't cuff me. They wouldn't kill me. I am a white man. It is my privilege to be believed by cops. It is my privilege not to be murdered by them.

We need to remember the cause of all of this. We need to think about it and react to that cause. The rest is irrelevant, really.