Time to stand against injustice

Thirty-five years ago, I was living in an apartment a short walk from my college campus. My car was a 1965 Plymouth Valiant that had been given to me for free. It was beat up but dependable. A friend came from Boston to stay with me for a couple of months until he found his own place. Since I could walk to campus, he used my car to get to his job the next town over. In the two years I drove that car, I was never stopped by the police. He drove it two months and was pulled over five times. I’m white. He’s Black.

I am ashamed that I let 35 years go by without speaking out against this injustice. I marched in the June 5 New Haven rally for racial justice, carrying a sign that read “White Silence Enables Violence.” I know that my silence over the years has contributed to the injustice faced by people of color. If I were Black or brown (or trans or a woman) I certainly would have experienced injustice. As a large, white, professional man usually wearing a suit and tie, I have never felt threatened by authority. Watching the injustice of George Floyd’s death has finally woken me from my silence. If I were born Black, that could have been me dead on the street.

If you believe in the “golden rule” — to do unto others as you would have them do unto you — ask yourself: what would a Black or brown or trans person or woman want a white person to do? If the answer is to stand up against injustice, then do it. Do it now. It’s been years, decades, even centuries of injustice in America. How long before you take a stand against what you know is wrong. Ask yourself: what is the right thing to do? And then do it.

James Stirling Bethany