Facilitate real change

I am writing in response to Bradley Gitz’s concern for public health. First of all, I agree that it is unfortunate that science, the undying quest for truth and knowledge, has been politicized in recent decades and probably well before that. For politicians to claim that climate change is a hoax rather than lead the fight against it will leave us all worse off in the long run.

However, his use of the phrase “alleged white supremacy” almost makes it sound like he doesn’t believe it exists. Easy for a good ol’ white boy in Arkansas to believe. He is choosing to not pay attention to the realities that people who don’t look like him have to face every day.

As another good ol’ white boy and lifelong Arkansan, I have lived all over this state and experienced the benefits of being born the way I look. I have seen people who don’t look like me have less beneficial experiences. The nationalist protesters weeks ago were heavily armed, unmasked, and if they were not white, would likely have been shot down as they approached any state capitol, all to vent frustration over relatively short-term economic costs. On the other hand, protests of a far more pervasive and long-lasting pandemic — systemic racism — have been unarmed, largely peaceful, heavily masked, and speak out against what we have accepted as a nation for far too long. I know firsthand because I participated in two of them. I am willing to take a small risk now if it means we can improve our society later.

I hope Mr. Gitz recognizes that white silence is compliance with the status quo. He is implying that it is OK for officers to nonchalantly snuff the life out of black people, to lock up brown and black people at a much higher rate for nonviolent crimes, and that it is OK for white people to continue to reap the rewards of hard work by minorities while not expecting a day of reckoning. Please join us in recognizing that the time for change is now. And when we do facilitate real change, we will all be better for it.

JOSH MOODY Fayetteville