Courage, sensitivity needed for racial reconciliation
Our country and our city sits at a crossroad. The killing of George Floyd in such a graphic, merciless act of statesanctioned violence has scratched the scab off the longinfected wound of racial unrest that has been oozing just under the skin of our society since its inception.
Many activists, politicians and communities of faith have vowed to confront this persistent infection, and eradicate it, once and for all.
While I believe most are motivated by good intentions, I question our ability to be successful.
Our systems of power and authority have long been concretized in our human interrelations and will not be dislodged easily. But it will be our sensitivity to the connectedness of all things that will allow us to begin the long, arduous processes of dismantling what has taken over 400 years to build.
It takes action after listening to make impact
Racism and white privilege is often its most insidious when you can’t connect the dots. It is hard to recognize sometimes because its machinations and iterations are so woven into the fabric of our societal systems that it is normative.
So as a result, deniers of systemic racism and white privilege dismiss complaints and critique, and presses onward under the banner of the status quo.
Many times even the very people most affected by it don’t see it or fully grasps its presence either.
Please, bear with me as I attempt to peel this onion back a bit.
Recently Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk announced that their office would no longer prosecute marijuana cases of a 1⁄2 ounce or less.
The Tennessean reported Funk saying, “These are people who are not endangering our community, but are saddled with the collateral consequences of a narcotics arrest record. When you combine that with the racial disparities, it becomes clear it needs to end,” Funk said regarding the change.
“Marijuana charges do little to promote public health, and even less to promote public safety,” the DA’S office said in a statement. Statistics show “at least 60% of those arrested each year have been Black. Nashville overallis 63.2% white, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, but only 30.5% of those arrested for possession of marijuana in 2019 were white.that same year, 68% were Black.”
In response to this announcement, Steve Anderson, the recently retired Chief of the Metro Nashville Police Department said “Marijuana possession remains a violation of Tennessee law, and we cannot be in a position of telling our officers to begin ignoring lawful statutes.” This means the police will continue to arrest anyone they want to, even though the DA has said they will not prosecute the case.
To dismantle the systems that perpetuate racism, and by default white privilege, will require great courage, but also a greater level of sensitivity.
This will result in some of the charged persons having to post bond, retain a lawyer, take time off from work to come to court, and in many cases defend themselves against additional charges that are added to bolster the case, such as: resisting arrest, evading and trespassing. All to be dismissed by the DA.
Harm is being done. We must seek to end it
Because of the increase in COVID-19 cases and the death toll from the pandemic continuing to rise, the city passed a law mandating the “wearing of masks in public” this past Friday.
According to Metro Health Department Board Chair Alex Jahangir, “We must do everything we can as a city to ensure the health and safety of our residents and visitors as we reopen,” Jahangir said. “The data is clear: Wearing a mask helps reduce the spread of this disease.” Residents not wearing a mask can be cited with a Class C misdemeanor that carries a fine of $50.
The Metro Nashville Police Department issued a statement after the Health Department’s saying, “officers are being provided with printed advisories to give to people they encounter who are not in compliance with the order...officers are instructed to educate and warn citizens about the requirement”.
It is at this point we must be courageous and sensitive and ask ourselves some questions.
Who is harmed more by one and who is given a pass by the other? What group of people are penalized and what group is patronized? Who has consequences for noncompliance and who doesn’t? Who benefits and who is burdened?
Both laws were reasoned and debated with “public health and safety” in mind. You can debate the merits of these two situations all you want, but I’ve been told all my life that a cornerstone of our democracy is the “rule of law”. But we must ask law for who?
It is small, seemingly insignificant and unrelated occurrences like these that occur daily, and not only in the criminal justice system that are emblematic of racism and white privilege.
Even some who see the correlation will rush to say that this was not the intent, as a way of negating the racial implications. While the intent of such a duplicitous application of the law is debatable, the Impact is not.
The intent may not be racist, but the Impact sure is.
If this resonates with you, maybe we have a chance, if not the scab will form again, but the infection will remain.