I just checked the blogs the first time is a couple of days only to discover the horrific news that (allegedly) a white man has been targeting and shooting black people in Tulsa, OK. That news scares me.
I’m afraid of what I’m seeing happen to my county.
The last time racial tensions and white supremacists were roaming around killing black men and women that I recall happened when I was a child in the 60’s. I remember all the stories about bombings and murders and assassinations of black people because of their race, because of their simple demand to be granted the same rights as white people that the 14th amendment to the Constitution declared they were entitled. Is that that the direction in which we are headed? When white men could shoot and kill black people and invariably get away with it, much as George Zimmerman has to date?
I’m afraid to tell my daughter about what happened in Tulsa.
She is 16, an honor student, and the daughter of a man with a German/British heritage and a woman with a Japanese heritage. She suffers from ADHD and an anxiety disorder yet she belong to her local high school’s Gay Straight Alliance and one of her best friends is a young African American male. She lost her piano teacher to cancer this winter, and has been having nightmares about her mother and I dying. How can I tell her that there are people out there right now who, without remorse, intentionally slaughtered other people because of their race. How can I tell her that she is safe because she is not black? After all, she vocally and prominently supports gay and lesbian students at her school who have been bullied. How can I assure her she won’t become a victim as well, because of her ethnicity, her support for the LGBT community, her friendship with a young black male or her liberal beliefs.
I’m afraid because members of my own family make racist remarks all the time to me.
Those who do are addicted to Fox News. They hear day after day how evil black (and Latino) men are, how Obama hates white people, how black gangs such as the “New Black Panthers” are planning to murder them, that homosexuals are a threat to the country and want to seduce young people into the “gay lifestyle, that our President is a Muslim and a terrorist lover, etc. What is worse is that I know there is nothing I can say to make them believe that Fox News is lying and distorting the truth to make them afraid, to foster their own fear of non-whites, to drum up their demons of bigotry and hate within them. I know because I have tried. Tried and failed.
I’m afraid that this anger and hatred will erupt into more violence this year, especially as it becomes clearer that President Obama is likely to win re-election.
I believe that the hatred and vitriol expressed toward Blacks, Hispanics, Liberals, etc. we saw on display in 2008 at the political rallies where Sarah Palin appeared is nothing compared to what may be headed our way this summer and fall as the election campaign gears up. We’ve already seen acts of vandalism in support of Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman. A 68 year old black man who accidentally triggered his medical alert was tased and then shot and killed by the police for no good reason whatsoever.
Numerous participants in the Occupy Movement, reporters and innocent bystanders have been shot with rubber bullets, tear gassed, beaten with batons and pepper sprayed while exercising their 1st Amendment rights to peaceably assemble and too free speech. Not that long ago a 4 year old child was pepper sprayed at a student protest in California regarding tuition increases. A four year-old child.
Everywhere I look I see such violence, either sanctioned by law enforcement, by political officials or incited and “justified by right wing news outlets, pundits and bloggers who claim they are the victims, not the people who have been brutalized, shot, tased, murdered. This country has a history of violence based on political differences, on racial differences, on gender differences — on any difference, to be honest, against anyone outside what a small group of angry, hateful and/or deceitful, opportunistic political figures on the right, invariably white men for the most part, consider to be the norm.
These race-baiters and haters and evil men (yes, I said the E word and for good reason) want to divide this country. They know they are losing the hearts and minds of the younger generations. They know that violent, hateful rhetoric has worked in the past to frighten and intimidate people, and to to trigger stochastic acts of violence by emotionally disturbed and alienated individuals who hear hateful, bigoted, violent words and take them as a literal call to arms.
The question is then, what do we do about this situation, in which a few powerful men and corporations, and their willing followers and dupes seek to trigger violence in order to maintain their influence on our government and the future of our country. For I am right to be afraid, but …
… that does not mean we should give in to our fear, or match violence with more violence. Courage is not a quality that banishes fear. Courage is that quality that acknowledges fear, understands the reasons for being fearful, but refuses to give in to fear. This year, more than any in the past, we need to overcome the fear tactics and the violence that will be employed by those on the right. If you can volunteer for the political campaign of your local Democratic officials. Volunteer to work on registration drives and get out the vote efforts. Contribute money to candidates if you can.
Most importantly, do not let your fear silence you at your workplace or in the public when you witness those who expressing hateful, racist threatening language against anyone. Silence by good people has always been the most effective weapon of those who would use or threaten the use of violence to gain a political advantage. Speak out. Let your neighbors, friends and family know what you believe and the values in which you believe.
I don’t know yet what I am going to tell my daughter about the shootings in Tulsa. But I will tell her about them. She needs to know that evil people are out there, both those who pull triggers on guns that kill and maim innocent people, and those who egg them on and support them, or excuse them, or worse, laud their crimes. She needs to know that even though I am afraid — and I am very afraid — that I do not intend to let my fear rule my actions or silence my voice. It’s too important to just standby and do nothing in the face of the assaults against our rights and freedoms that we are witnessing everyday. Assaults against women, minorities, immigrants, Muslims, atheists, gays and lesbians and transgender individuals, and all those who hold that human rights should not be limited to the few, but granted to all people.
If you come to this site, likely you are a person who feels as I do, that our fundamental liberties are under attack. You and I have reason to be afraid. However, we also have reason to act.
Please do what you can. Don’t let those who hate rule the day.
Thank you.
