Don’t Tell Me
Don’t tell me George Floyd and countless others were murdered for a good reason.
Untimely and unjustified death is always wrong. Violence is always wrong. I hope we can come to a consensus regarding fundamental and intrinsic goods and evils.
Don’t tell me I don’t have a right to tell you how to protest.
I have a duty to share my perspective, same as you. I have a duty to protect the world I live in, same as you. That should be a common goal we both work towards, together. However, in America today, we are having fundamental disagreements that block us from reaching each other.
Don’t tell me my people have oppressed your people for 400 years so violent acts are necessary.
My family has only been in this country for 50 years. Not all whites have a hand in the problem. Not all members of minority groups have a claim to rewards. Financial reparations are not in order. However, societal amends need to be reached.
Don’t tell me you learned the violence from white folks.
Every day, in minority communities, black on black violence occurs. And, to a rate far larger than so called police brutality. Start in your own communities, build respect for yourself, your friends, and your neighbors. Change the stereotype, don’t foster it. The same goes for all groups. Start at home to change the larger group.
Don’t tell me, because I look white, that I’m automatically the problem, because that’s racist.
Disconnect is the problem. Distrust is the problem. Destruction is the problem. Whatever color you are. Whatever your situation.
Don’t tell me you’re a victim.
We are all victims when we talk past each other. Playing the victim and imposing the blame on someone else never works out. We must respect ourselves enough to deviate from our assumed paths and challenge the things we hear and see, for both sides of the argument. We must hold each other to a higher standard than “victim” and “oppressed”. Things will not change unless we assume responsibility and do not wait for others to give us the go ahead and the power to make the change we wish to see.
Don’t tell me it’s OK to injure, kill, burn, or steal in the name of Black Lives Matter.
George Floyd’s family themselves do not condone the violence. Destroying one’s own community only worsens the social and economic atmosphere of the area. The very atmosphere these protests are aimed and fixing. Why make it harder on those in the community to change their circumstance? Destruction does not bring back lives, and it certainly doesn’t save any either. It is not insensitive, nor racist for me to say peaceful protests should replace rampant rioting. I support the cause, but not the method of action.
Don’t tell me people should be held accountable for their actions in one respect and not in another.
The wrong police need to face charges. The right police need to check their colleagues. The peaceful protestors and marchers ought to be commended for their activism. The opportunist looters and rioters ought to be condemned for their criminalism.
Don’t tell I’m racist and that I’m missing the point.
The same way you don’t want me to create a narrative for someone based on the color of their skin, you cannot do the same to me. The point is that a wrong was done and continues to be done because further violence is involved. It is despicable to demolish one’s own community, destroy the livelihoods of people in your own community, send members of your own community to jail or into the ground for the sake of a larger movement, that is probably a pawn of political parties and the media to incite unrest and play puppeteer.
Don’t tell me silence is betrayal.
My silence is not a privilege. Our cancel culture makes it impossible for dissenting opinions to be heard because a simple differing opinion cannot be met with respect and heard out. This informal censorship is not productive. We have become too fearful of the other, and for no good reason. People find it abhorrent to have friends or date people of a differing political party nowadays. Silence from exhaustion and fear is exactly what the BLM wants to see eradicated from its community, but has no problem imposing this culture on others for their own benefit.
Don’t tell me All Lives don’t matter.
The notion that no lives matter until black lives matter is absurd. We are all a part of the human race. No race divisions exist. And yet, we make the divisions ourselves. We feed into what we are fed. We feed into the drama. We feed into the dread. We feed into victimization. We feed into the construction and shunning of the other. I call us to work together. I call us to listen to what the other says. I call us to understand one another. I call us to rid ourselves of ignorance and blindly following the flock. Everyone ought to respect each other and think about the repercussions of their actions, not only for the individual actor, but also for the community at large.
