American Anthem

The United States of America was built upon extreme prejudice towards its native inhabitants and the blood of people of color kidnapped and forced with said building. These are fundamental truths overshadowed by the colonial fight for freedom and independence we are carefully and at length taught to admire and appreciate in American history classes. The current president of the United States based part of his election platform on the echoes of those same prejudices for people of color, knowing full and well that enough Americans continue to disguise their bigoted perspectives as culture under white nationalism.

The president recently tweeted a highly charged statement to further underscore his true nature by quoting notoriously racist Miami chief of police Walter Headley, who amidst protests of brutality and aggressive stop-and-frisk policing of black neighborhoods by white cops in 1967, made it clear he was willing to kill unarmed people of color in the streets: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” In both instances white men in powerful authoritative positions bypassed the problems they directly helped fester and threatened escalated violence, rather than advocating for any kind of mediation or appeal for peace. The president made this remark in reference to the second night of protests in Minneapolis following the flagrant murder of yet another person of color while in a white police officer’s custody; Derek Chauvin extinguished George Floyd’s life over suspicions of forgery amounting to $20. Although it first required a week of intense protests, Chauvin was eventually arrested and now faces second-degree murder charges. Forgery adds to the exhaustively long list of non-violent situations white people are just as prone to be arrested for, but people of color will often pay with their freedom or their very lives.

Racist America has both subtly and conspicuously displayed their strong discomfort with people of color communicating their own strong discomfort with the social, financial and judicial inequalities endured for generations. That segment of white America would simply rather not be reminded of either the vile past nor the unjust present; it's time to "move on" as if discrimination had been abolished along with slavery, and it is people of color that are perpetuating a non-issue. Martin Luther King Jr. went to Washington dreaming of unity and speaking of equal rights and racial comprehension.

He was assassinated for his efforts.

Malcolm X recognized that much of America was resolute to never see people of color as equals and as a result took a decidedly more aggressive and protective stance.

He was also assassinated.

NFL player Colin Kaepernick knelt during the playing of the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality targeting people of color. The president insidiously twisted a very specific message into a false narrative that directly served his selfish political efforts. The president equated kneeling during the anthem to disrespect towards veterans and country that an equally intolerant base of supporters devoured as truth with Pavlovian zeal. The president referred to Kaepernick and fellow players who had the audacity to silently and with civility protest a true plague corroding many American police departments as “sons of bitches” that should be fired. Kaepernick wasn't fired, but as a result of his protests has remained an unsigned NFL player for almost four years now. Racist America now finally led by a decidedly racist administration exists in part because of our first amendment rights, rights that apply to all Americans unless of course it is black Americans protesting police brutality.

Unless it involves black people protesting by marching, displaying posters or silently kneeling.

Unless it involves black people initiating dialogue against racism.

Unless it involves black people resorting to anger and violence because all other forms of protest are just as harshly criticized.

Unless it involves black people.

I do not condone wanton violence or destruction of property but when all other forms of voicing anger and injustice are forcefully muted, as a non-black person of color I absolutely recognize that violence and destruction have their place in history to bring about effective attention and more importantly, genuine change.

The president wants to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization. During 2019 House hearings, New York representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez was informed by FBI assistant director for counterterrorism Michael McGarrity that the FBI is prevented “by law” from classifying US groups as terrorists. This means that despite the terrifyingly long list of cold-blooded, gun-owning mass murderers with known ties to white supremacists groups responsible for the deaths of THOUSANDS of children in schools and adults at work, at prayer or at home right here on American soil, they will never be identified or tried as terrorists. It is an entirely different group of people critical of this administration never held accountable for a single death that the president will attempt to break or create new laws in order to classify as terrorists in America. The president and his administration are succeeding in metastasizing full blown viral and moral disasters into national calamities through word and action. From inside a protective bunker deep beneath a darkened White (power!) House, the president communicated with the bravery of an unhinged sociopath how the governors of the affected states could stop the protests with military backed violence. How jailing the protestors for 10 years will end the problems. A profoundly ignorant and unempathetic president suggests deploying the military when people of color rebel against a grave injustice, but not to squash numerous heavily armed and violent white nationalist groups whose intent is to eliminate people of color because, lest we forget, there are “fine people” in those groups as well. This administration is actively widening the racial divide that has eroded this nation since its inception and could conceivably plunge us into another national maelstrom reminiscent of the “civil” war.

Unless we all speak. Unless we all act.

There are many white Americans cognizant and ashamed of those pages of American history we skim past. Those that see the daily social injustices and inequalities and are angered by them. Those that know the co-workers of color that better deserved the raise, the credit or just the recognition for their labor and achievements. But shame, recognition and credit are no longer enough. We need to collectively take the necessary action and speak up when words need to be said in the moment they need to be heard. We all need to take a knee when silence proves more powerful than words. We all need to hold our elected officials further accountable whether by peaceful protest or by showing up at the polls. Social media has proven to be as powerful a tool if not sometimes more so than a witness, jury or a ballot box; let us use it to extricate those who are a liability to their title or position. This would necessitate holding social media itself to an immediate and higher standard than to merely promise an eventual “policy review” as Mark Zuckerberg was recently pressured to state, while our elected officials and the president himself more than any other elected official abuse social media to pervade the truth and further divide our nation on a nearly daily basis. The president’s astonishingly incendiary remarks and outright lies need to be fact-checked by all media platforms for the world to see for themselves and then removed like the cancer they are. There are police officers and their superiors who should be tried and in jail right now for the crimes their badges have allowed them to commit and cell phone video has allowed us to witness. There are politicians that have made assaulting both the Constitution and their constituents part of their career. Every nefarious DeVos-level deed should become a stronger, world-wide denouncement on social media in order to make their removal from their publicly funded positions of abuse easier but democratic, exactly like Steve King’s recent loss in Iowa was. And a reckoning may very well and finally be under way. We should not be aiming to go back to normal given how “normal” was a barely disguised complacency and long-held acceptance of injustice and racism in far too many ways and on far too many levels.

I do not condone wanton violence or destruction of property but when all other forms of voicing anger and injustice are forcefully muted, as a non-black person of color I absolutely recognize that violence and destruction have their place in history to bring about effective attention and more importantly, genuine change. I do not pretend to think that all racists can be made to change their perceptions or that racism can be expunged from society. What I am certain of are the weeds in our garden. Knowing I will never be rid of them all does not prevent me from tirelessly doing the right thing. If I were to stop doing the right thing, stop identifying, stop uprooting, stop caring about all the other plant life in our garden, the weeds would have an obstructed path to ruin the entire garden by starving the other plants of the water, sunlight and nutrients they need to grow. Wherever racism cannot be taught or perhaps trained away, it needs to be torn forcibly from the ground and laid bare to wither in the light of day. Donald Trump and his appointees are the weeds that come November 2020, need to be decisively wrenched from the White House for history to judge as the scourge that stained this country with a multitude of profoundly unethical and procedural failures that should never be allowed to repeat. This may be the only path towards beginning to truly heal from the viral and moral pandemics we are currently fighting against on virtually all fronts.

Be safe. Be healthy. Be kind. Be careful.

updated 5.24.21