This Time, This Too, Can't Be Let Pass

“This too, shall pass”

That is an old phrase that my Dad used to use. With us children, it was meant to be a reassuring note when times were not good. In other words, just have a little patience and whatever is troubling you now will go away. I’m sure in the midst of the coronavirus, and now with civil unrest sweeping the nation, there are many who want to just close their eyes, and their minds for a bit, and wait for the status quo, or their view of normalcy, to return.

In the case of the Covid-19 virus that is of course what we want. But the other virus, the racial inequality which is pervasive, which only snaps into the public consciousness when things like the death of George Floyd, finally has to addressed far more fully than it ever has before. We are off to a good start in that regard, with many voices saying many right things, at various levels of vigor. Around here, yesterday the Kansas City Chiefs, and Patrick Mahomes, separately issued statements. It seemed both were rather delayed, but it was the first day after a volatile weekend, and each carried language that was at least somewhat strong, if not measured.

Mahomes is such an important figure. It was instantly evident, as he put out his statement just after noon, and it was almost immediately a significant item on the crawl at the bottom of the screen on ESPN. His message of being welcomed through his life by both races as the product of a mixed race marriage, who was brought up in part in a locker room setting of black and white resonates. Mahomes has a huge voice, and while he is cautious by nature in this arena, his comments have already led to many commenting that it would be great if the nation as a whole could emulate what we have at least to a degree in sports, a meritocracy where your abilities are judged purely on face value and not what color your face is.

Sports for quite a while now has moved past a place where blacks couldn’t play quarterback or middle linebacker, where it was noteworthy when a team started an all-black lineup in basketball, or where it took until the early sixties where there wasn’t an all-white baseball team. But that certainly hasn’t dragged along the nation’s attitudes, and even in this arena, we are only a couple of years removed from a peaceful protest of the same issue we are dealing with right now, with players kneeling during the anthem, being turned on its head. Ignoring the issue that was being pointed out, and focusing on the act. Colin Kapernick became a pariah, and hasn’t played football for money since.

These issues are never cut and dried. With protest comes baggage. In Kapernick’s case, his choice of protest was considered an offensive affront to the military and the nation. In our current climate, well thought out protests by serious-minded people are then muddied by others merely using the atmosphere created to burn and loot. What that results in is the ability of those who don’t want to hear a message of change to focus their vitriol on another target, one that deserves some scrutiny, but not the lion’s share.

One of the finest voices in the first few days of these protests has been Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The seventy-three-year-old Hall of Famer has true credibility. He has spoken, usually very softly, about racial issues for about a half a century, yet another in a painful list of examples of how slow change has been in coming. He always balances his message, this time around stating continuously his admiration for the work of the large majority of police, while strongly intoning that a far more vigorous monitoring of the behavior of bad cops is vital.

The video of the treatment of George Floyd was just the latest, but certainly so illuminative of the problem. In broad daylight Derek Chauvin kneels on the neck of Floyd cavalierly, while two of his partners hold down his legs, and another breezily stands watch. Even likely knowing he is being filmed by a phone camera, and then with pleas to stop ringing in his ears, he could care less. This is just normal to him, in this case tragically so, and unfortunately has been for a long, long time.

The outrage has been palpable, but the mistake that is likely made in many circles is to think that it is mainly because of this incident. Of course it is just a tipping point reflection of years of such incidents, with some level of outrage, and then a return to the sameness of inequality and systematic racism. Eventually, people reach a breaking point, and with it comes actions that escalate from what almost always starts out as reasoned protest. There is natural animosity in these situations, naturally, the people trying to keep the peace representing the same institution that caused the anger.

Being a cop in these situations is a job not to wish on anyone. It’s hard. You are asked to keep your cool when others really aren’t. But that is also what a police office signed up for. What we have seen in too many instances is a crowd gathered in protest, that crowd somehow deemed an improper gathering, and asked to disperse. Which they don’t immediately, and often too soon, out comes pepper spray and tear gas, and then the real trouble begins. I am not going to try and argue that all or even most of these episodes is fueled by police overreaction, but many are, and it’s the police that are paid, and hopefully trained, to be the side with more restraint.

To be brutally honest, if every one of these protests was peaceful, they likely wouldn’t have the same impact. Some of the worst riots in American history came in 1968 after the shooting of Dr. Martin Luther King. Within months, the most significant civil rights legislation in history was passed. Should it take that? No. But, when anger and frustration over a significant period of time are ignored, people are going to feel that being reasonable doesn’t work.

That is why this time is so vital. This time the voices, and yes, some of the actions, need to lead to meaningful discussion. The statements are out there, and the world of sports has a great platform with famous people who can be influencers saying many of the right things. But this has to go somewhere. There have to be commissions, there has to be discussions of how law enforcement is trained, the public has to want this to be an issue. People who have little chance of ever having a bad situation based on their station in life or color have to be upset that this goes on.

Part of that listening will be realizing that you may well not like the way a message is presented, and you should be rightly angry that it escalates too far at times. But that can’t obscure the message. We likely will get a healthy dose of kneeling during the national anthem this NFL season. If the reaction is exactly the same as in 2017, then all this talk the last few days will be irrelevant. Those players who kneel (and this hardly should be the only choice of protest) also need to do a better job of explaining why than they did previously.

But if we just get angry at looters, or want to boycott football, because someone is quietly protesting injustice, then there will be a whole lot more of what we have seen the last few days. Because the protesters see the inequality. On April 30th in Michigan, seven hundred people rallied against the stay at home orders at the state house. Some carried guns, many berated police officers. They were almost exclusively white. They were not asked to disperse, there was no tear gas or pepper spray. There was one arrest.

The issues lie out there plain to see and hear. Denying they exist can be anyone’s choice, but it is a choice that grows more dangerous by the day. We need all of the things that seem pablum, but are true. Listening, understanding, setting aside what is merely best for you for the greater good. It’s not easy. We are all different. Many of us can comfortably avoid being directly impacted by any of this.

But our nation can’t.