I just finished watching the George Floyd video.  The 6-minute version.  It made me want to throw up.  And scream.  And kick that kneeling police officer in the face.  He’s kneeling on the guy’s neck for almost four whole minutes.  It’s really hard to watch.  But also necessary.  Because it just keeps fucking happening.  Day after day, month after month.  And I know that my rage likely doesn’t approximate that felt by the black community.  Or the sense of unfairness.  And injustice.  And déjà vu.  How could it?

If you watched the Ahmaud Arbery video, which is also a difficult, painful, and maddening watch, you saw a black man be hunted down by white vigilantes.  Neither of these men was charged for three full months.  Until the video in question surfaced.  And public outrage forced the hand of the Georgia justice system.  And now these men will stand trial for murder where they may yet be acquitted.  Just as Michael Brown’s killer was.  And Eric Garner’s killer. And Freddie Gray’s killers.  And Trayvon Martin’s killer.  It’s a horrifying and stunning pattern.  A young black man is killed in unnecessary, inhumane, and gruesome fashion, and the killers are rarely if ever held to account.  If you are black in America, would you honestly feel like you could get justice?  That the system was there to protect you?

Just yesterday, a white 23-year-old multiple-murder suspect was arrested, armed but alive, by police in Maryland.  A good friend of mine wondered aloud on Facebook why he hadn’t been shot.  And it raises a very valid question: why do young white perpetrators of violence almost always seem to be taken in alive (unless they kill themselves) while young non-violent black “offenders” often end up dead?  I don’t think anyone would argue that police shouldn’t exhaust all means at their disposal to take in even the most violent offenders peacefully, where possible.  Police are not judges, juries, nor executioners.  We leave that to the justice system and, in the mold of other civilized countries, should not be executing our citizens in the first place.  So why don’t police offer the same courtesy, the same fundamental humanity, the same inalienable rights, to suspected black perpetrators of crimes?  None of us who are white would want to put ourselves at the mercy of the policing and justice system faced by black people.  And I don’t imagine black people want this for white people.  So it is incumbent upon our society to ensure that black people in America get the same justice that is afforded white people.  That they are given the benefit of the doubt and fully subject to the supposition that they are innocent until proven guilty.  And not killed for crimes that they often didn’t commit or even those that they may have committed.

The fact that I can write this blog post, safe in the knowledge that I can return to the US and not face this kind of biased and brutal policing and justice, is not lost upon me.  Even when I was in the minority during my time in Africa, Asia, or now Latin America, I have never been negatively racially profiled.  Perhaps because some of these societies were more just and perhaps because I was afforded the privilege of whiteness.  So I don’t have the benefit or conviction of being able to speak from personal experience.  But I do think that we in the white community need to take these injustices, affronts, and transgressions personally.  No, it’s might not be our direct family members or our kids.  But it is our friends.  Our loved ones.  Our fellow citizens.  And it undermines the values of our country and the promises made, but often not kept, to all Americans.

For any number of reasons, it galls me to see armed white terrorists descend upon state capitols and be treated like peaceful protestors.  These thugs force their way into the halls of government to insist, at the end of a gun, that their conditions be met.  You may balk at my use of the word terrorist.  But what is a terrorist if not someone who threatens the use of violence unless their specific demands are met?  Now, for a second, imagine that these “protestors” were black.  How would they have been treated if they had showed up at the Michigan statehouse armed and belligerent?  Would the cops have merely stood down?  Would the governor merely have closed the legislature to meet and deliberate another day?  I think you know the answer.  Because when black (and other) people did march in Minneapolis, without guns, to protest the death of George Floyd, they were met with tear gas.

Simply put, black Americans deserve the same justice that white Americans enjoy.  As do Latinos for that matter.  We should not and cannot have different standards and systems of policing and justice for people of different ethnicities.  Not if we purport to stand for certain values.  Values that are etched into our cherished documents but all too often remain on the page and not put into practice.  It is a national travesty and a stain on our collective dignity.

So what will I do?  Granted, it’s a bit more difficult to enact change quarantined in my apartment here in Ecuador, but there’s plenty I (and we) can still do.  For one, I can vote.  I can vote for candidates who care about equality and justice and don’t race bait and coddle white nationalists.  I will vote against any and all candidates who support or are linked to the president’s white nationalist agenda.  Abetting this behavior is akin to committing it.  These people do not deserve to be in positions of authority.  I can also advocate to my representatives.  If they care about these causes, I will ask them to push harder and hold them to account.  I can donate to organizations like the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, or Black Lives Matter, that support the cause of justice and racial equality.  And I can write this blog, even if the readership may be limited.  Here are some resources that another friend posted for white (or other) people to engage in the fight.  Every waterfall starts with a drop of water.  And we need a waterfall of civic action to wash away the aforementioned stain of persistent racial injustice in our country.  Every action to help, no matter how small, matters, and until police stop killing young black men, we need to cast our votes, open our wallets, and raise our voices.