I WANT TO HEAR YOU

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in full pandering mode, announces that she is going to do everything she can “to make white Americans listen to their African American brothers.”  Wow, that statement is sure to get the full support of those voters in her camp already.  The large majority of our society has already listened to the anger, the resentment and all the racial divisive rhetoric spewing forth from the mouths of our politicians.  As for that large majority, we don’t need to be lectured but we do need to be able to have a legitimate conversation.

If we were to look at our societal relationships, all of the different components that we have been divided into by the political factions, this country appears to be badly fractured.  If these were relationships between individuals, say in a marriage, those relationships would probably be terminated.  There is one thing that might keep those marriages together and that is strong mutual purpose.  We, as Americans, have that purpose. Unlike individual relationships we cannot be directed in to the process of mediation or escape through any sort of dissolution or divorce.  We do not all have the interests of our mutually created children to give us the impetus to repair all the mistrust, the false perceptions and all the past history confronting that process.

In that state of anger, the individuals involved do require the ability and the desire to listen to the other side of the argument.  Any of us who have ever been in a heated argument are very aware as to the difficulty involved in the activity of listening when you are being hit over the head with a frying pan.  In the aftermath of the Dallas assassinations, I have to direct my own attention to the perceptions created by some narrative that brings the problem of race relations into the headlines once again.  There are certain beliefs that I myself hold at my core.  I believe that most of us in our society have similar beliefs.  We care about sustaining our own lives; we care about our own personal safety; and we care about our personal reputations.  We as individuals care about those things and so do people in other neighborhoods. If we all care about those things, where does all the disturbance and distrust stem from?

For all segments of our society it is really difficult to form bonds of trust with someone or something that wants you to trust them at the same time they are threatening you.  The minorities in our country are nervous, mistrusting and fearful of Anglos and police due to past history.  Police and Anglos are on the direct reverse of that coin.  Both sets of fear have some basis but in reality those basis are only partially justified.  I say partially because in absolutely none of those cases can any of the groups honestly tar and feather everyone in the other groups.  Walking a mile in the other guy’s moccasins does not mean there is no mud on that particular footwear, or on the ones you were wearing.

In the case of “Black Lives Matter”, I can understand the need to draw attention to a situation and viewpoint. Surrounded with cause, that violence against young men in the Black community by law enforcement needs to be in check.  Very few in law enforcement feel that ones’ skin color is a reason for taking a person’s life.  That is the voice of reason, but the voice of fear is also in play.  The tension playing out, black vs. blue, is part of the effect and cause relationship and that is where our sensible conversation should be focused.  While the young black man may fear for his life at the hands of a police officer, the police officer has a justifiable fear as well. Like it or not the slogans of “kill a cop”, “pigs in a blanket”, and knowing that a target has been openly placed on your back could lead to fearful reactions.  No matter how much training an officer goes through his basic instinct is to stay alive.  I’m sure that any reasonable person would understand the apprehension behind confronting young black males when the showing of weapons and attitude predominate a neighborhood.  That does not grow out of prejudice.

Black Lives Matter as a statement is great, as a battle cry and as a call to arms it is extremely dangerous.  To create a war where discussion and understanding could actually be a solution seems counterproductive.