3 June 2020
Each day over the past few days I have written several paragraphs. None of them has been published. There has been so much going on that the situation has changed by the time I am ready to hit the button that posts my thoughts.
Since George Floyd’s death America has forcefully had its focus shifted to racial disparity in this country. The economics of that disparity and the policing of the dividing line between the races/between the classes has been laid open for those with eyes to see. This time it has been harder to turn away. With the pandemic ongoing people have fewer things to distract them from what occurred. You can’t just throw yourself into you job or kids’ sports and mentally say you are too busy to think about this, when those things just aren’t there to divert you.
From individual protesters to large corporations taking part in large scale awareness events, there appears to be an increased awareness of the racial economic disparities and the disparities of policing behavior between whites and minority communities in America. But as stores open up and people return to their jobs, their favorite restaurants and their summer places, will these horrible problems stay on top of our minds or fade?
People like the majority leader in the Senate and his caucus are hoping that the passion, outrage and anger fade. If it doesn’t, they might have to address some of their sacred cows like capital gains taxes and shift their focus to the vast majority of Americans who don’t own stocks and have only their minimum wage (or slightly better with no health benefits) jobs as regards proper taxing policy. Trickle-down economics has never worked for the American working poor. It is simply a lie told to distract the masses from the money grab by the top ½ %.
Police unions also hope the focus will fade. Otherwise they might have to root out the white nationalists and the broader aspects of racism in their ranks. Otherwise they will have to deal with the internal racism displayed against officers of color. Otherwise they may have to address the disparity of treatment received in active policing between races, things like stopping people for driving while black will have to end. Otherwise they will have to face a loss of immunity for improper acts of violence based on a standard imposed not just by internal police policy.
To recast a quote attributed to P.T. Barnum, nobody ever lost money by betting the American people have a short memory or the attentions span of a gnat. I don’t have great hope change will come unless there are continuing roiling protests in the streets. I don’t have great hope change will come unless you get buy in that it is to everyone’s advantage to remove institutionalized barriers to social mobility. I don’t have great hope for change unless the tired out white people in the U.S. Congress feel that they will lose power if they don’t change a system stacked in favor of the rich white population of this country.
Humid day today here in Michigan. Still, in my pandemic mode I will be making home improvements and taking long walks for my health. I will have time to read the news and will have time to think about the change we need to truly return America to its proper course. We all should be reflecting on what must happen next and how we can help foster the change that must come.
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