Still dealing with racism, generation after generation
Our two children spent their adolescent years in Philadelphia. As parents, we spent many hours talking to them about the protocol of survival if they were stopped by the Philadelphia police.
That was 30 years ago, and we are having the same conversation today: How to survive if you are stopped by the police. Ironically, this is the same lesson that was passed down from our parents to us.
As native Floridians, we both experienced first-hand Jim Crow laws and segregation in the ’50s and ’60s. The wounds and memories are still raw of growing up during a time when black people were penalized for the color of their skin; literally lynched for trying to register to vote; harassed for desegregating public schools 10 years after the 1954 Supreme Court decision; attacked by dogs for drinking from whites-only water fountains; and the litany of indignities we suffered back then, which go on and on and on today.
Our son is a Florida state senator and we are still having the same conversation with him, especially when he leaves from Orlando on his way to Tallahassee for legislative sessions — traveling up Interstate 75 north and then Interstate 10 west, through those infamous West Florida counties that have a long track record of lynching and unfair treatment of black men. We still hold our breath until he calls and tells us he has arrived safely.
This past Memorial Day, my wife woke me up to Good Morning America, believing that it would be an ordinary day of celebration. Because of COVID-19, we only had our family present for the cookout, and we thought the day ended uneventfully.
Waking up on Tuesday, she realized that Memorial Day was not an uneventful day. Tuesday morning’s news caught her attention that a white woman named Amy Cooper was walking her dog in New York’s Central Park. She was asked by Christian
Cooper, a black man, to put her dog on a leash. Cooper called the police and lied that her life was in danger. Fortunately, Christian had videoed the incident and left. The irony is that, had Cooper waited until the police arrived, he could have lost his life.
Later that day, breaking news showed George Floyd being pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, and ultimately murdered in slow motion with a knee upon his neck while three other officers aided and abetted in the crime.
Our granddaughters, who are 7 and 8, at first thought they had seen a black man being run over by a car on TV. By this time, the horrific video was seizing the world’s attention and my youngest granddaughter realized this was the man she had seen earlier. She shrieked in horror when she learned that the man had not been hit by a car but had been murdered. My son spent that night and every day since trying to explain what they had seen was not an attempt to kill all black men.
The question is, how long must this craziness last? How many generations have to go through this horror show before America sees this as wrong and inhumane?
What will it take for America to get its foot off our neck?
Paraphrasing Frederick Douglass, a black activist from another generation: Power never concedes anything without a struggle; never did and never will.
One of the simple solutions to the problem black people face in America is this: White people, we need you to do better! We appreciate those of you who have decided to join us in the fight for equality, and we appreciate those of you who have always been with us. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
We can no longer afford for you to remain silent.
Racism is still real in 2020!