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George Floyd and The American Dream
It is time we finally made true amends for American sins if there is to be a future for the American Dream.
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By Earl D. Fowlkes, Jr.
, LIKE SO MANY BLACK AMERICANS AND PEOPLE OF study, to buy a home, to go to school, to travel their nation, to live goodwill, have had to stop and reflect this past week on the their sacred lives. These are not the sins of African Americans, death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement offi- but these actions do define America’s history of whites against cers in Minneapolis. George Floyd’s horrific death was captured people of African descent. These are the scraps of history out on film — searing the painful images into the collective memory of which people of African descent must build their American of the nation, a scar on the consciousness of the country and its Dream. tortured racial history. It must finally be said, the burden, the tremendous burden, of Once again, police officers have circumvented the law, ending racism in America sits completely with White Americans assuming the role of judge, jury, and executioner. Once again, and White Americans alone. White America needs to finally the nation cries out for justice after four hundred years of racist acknowledge their total responsibility for the generating and atrocities scarring yet again the soul preserving to this day of a system of and spirit of our nation. Once again, racial dehumanization and discrim“Many believe people take to the streets, venting ination that continues to impact and centuries of fear, pain, anguish and often define the lives and struggles African Americans frustrations. Once again, a small of African Americans. And let us should share in the minority of people hand themselves have the courage to acknowledge over to violence and chaos believthat this moral burden will have a moral burden of ridding ing this the only way to make the real financial cost to Whites and the nation nation listen and respond. their privilege. White Americans Of course, no one is saying that must commit to the redistribution of its bigoted spirit. violence is the answer. Violence will of public and private resources; it not dismantle violence. Violence is time that this nation invested will not finally bring an end to the in the health, social, and economde facto apartheid that has long ic lives of African Americans. We existed in the United States. Years must finally address the profound of political disenfranchisement, political and economic disparities economic abuse and exploitation, that racism has forced upon the social isolation and cultural marAfrican American community. In ginalization will not be healed or this cause, African Americans must transformed by violence. Violence be the guides and leaders defining is not the answer. It never was and the political and economic investis not the answer today. ments that must be made in their Nor is violence an equalizer. communities. If the entire economy between Maine and California were For more than 400 years, White Americans have benedestroyed tomorrow, the total damage would not come close fited from the hard work and invaluable sacrifice of African to equaling the emotional, physical, psychological, cultural, and Americans. Whites have benefited from the privileges that racspiritual damage and loss suffered by people of African descent ism has created for White communities. If America is to have a since the first enslaved people arrived in Jamestown, Virginia future worthy of its noblest aspirations, it must finally confront in 1619. the sins of its past — sins that form the very foundation of so The sad fact is that many people sincerely believe that many of the inequities and social ills of our present national life. America is not racist, while others believe that African Americans It is time we finally made true amends for American sins if there should share in the moral burden and political responsibility of is to be a future for the American Dream. ridding the nation of its systemic racism and bigoted spirit. To White Americans I suggest two excellent readings on racSimply put, this is yet another form of moral depravity. African ism: White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk Americans did not take away anyone’s nation, culture, language About Racism by Robin DiAngelo and How To Be An Antiracist or spiritual practices. African Americans did not enslave peo- by Ibram X. Kendi. ple. African Americans have not lynched their neighbors nor restricted people from exercising their basic American rights. Earl D. Fowlkes, Jr. is the President and CEO of the Center for African Americans have not denied anyone the right to work, to Black Equity.
THIS IS YET ANOTHER FORM OF MORAL DEPRAVITY.”
JUNE 4, 2020 • METROWEEKLY.COM
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