“It’s All Black People”
Said a young girl no older than 20. We had just come back from serving on Skid row to around 200 people. This is the one thing maybe 1 in 500 volunteers ever have the courage to say. Everyone sees it but no one says it. Myself, I saw it when I started 6 years ago. I struggled for years with it. Let me rephrase that, I struggled with my own prejudices from seeing it. It took me 2 years. 2 Years to understand the term “systemic racism” that my sociology professor taught me 13 years ago. It took 2 years of going to Skid row for 5 nights a week and getting to know the people, gaining their trust and stories to understand it. So how could I ever make people who can’t make it to Skid row understand?
I read the news today. — “Trump Declares Opioid Crisis National Emergency”
The US is suffering from an opioid crisis on unprecedented levels. Ohio is devastated and 35,000 Americans died in 2015 the article goes on to say. All sides of the aisle from Liberals to Moderates to Conservatives are showing an outpouring of compassion. What the article doesn’t reveal though is that the vast majority of those affected are White. In the 1980’s it was a different crisis. Instead of opioids it was Crack. Instead of poor whites it was poor blacks. Crack decimated inner cities but the US response was much different. Not so much compassion but a War on Drugs. It should have been called a War on Blacks. Instead of a national response like now to boost and expand substance abuse treatment as this article states;
“Experts said that the national emergency declaration would allow the executive branch to direct funds towards expanding treatment facilities and supplying police officers with the anti-overdose remedy naloxone.”
The aim then was to jail as many people as possible. Instead of naloxone the police were armed with the directive to hunt and cage. I know many people on Skid row. Not just acquaintances but people whose trust I have gained. Story after story I’ve heard sounds the same. They came from a single parent family or through foster care because one or both of their parents were imprisoned without ever being given the chance to rehabilitation towards a second chance at life. Skid row is a legacy of broken families. Of black people who never received the compassion that those suffering from this opioid crisis are receiving. Skid row is a legacy of systemic racism.
“It’s All Black People”
For once I’m actually happy at a Trump decision. I truly am. This will give the millions suffering from this opioid crisis a second chance at life. And in that second chance a future for their children. As for the people we serve, the ones who were addicted to crack, it actually was a choice as some say. It was the choice by the US Government to imprison and destroy their lives and families. It might be 30 years late but they still deserve our compassion but more importantly they deserve Justice. This is why housing the homeless is important. It’s not a matter of compassion,
It’s a matter of Justice!
Mel Tillekeratne