It occurred to me today that we aren’t even sure what the real problem is.
I was on Facebook earlier today and I saw a coworker of mine in an argument with a former student of ours about the George Floyd tragedy.
As you no doubt are aware, the events of May 25th in Minneapolis, resulting in a man’s death while in police custody, have sparked, once again, the national debate about race relations and police brutality in the United States.
But, this argument that I noticed on Facebook had a bit of a different spin on it.
The student, an intelligent young man for as long as I’ve known him, was arguing that this case isn’t an issue about race at all, but rather, it’s an issue about the abuse of power.
Which got me to thinking.
What is power? Why do people want it so badly? Why does it tend to change people who have it? What is life like without it? How is power related to race relations?
Some of these questions might not have easy answers, but while I was thinking about how race relations and racism are related to power, it occurred to me, as I’m sure it has occurred to most people, that racism has an inherent connection with the the question of who holds power and who lacks power and who is abusing their power.
I’ve often heard rioting –like that which has been occurring in Minneapolis for the last four nights, like that which is now occurring, as I write this, in cities all over the country– is a psychological response to a feeling of powerlessness. The people who riot are without options to express their frustration and and hopelessness, and so they are attention-seeking in a way that works when their voices and opinions and concerns are left unanswered through other means.
Additionally, people who look at rioting as non-sensical or counter-productive tend to be people who have very rarely experienced powerlessness to the same extent that the underprivileged in our society experience it.
You never see rich middle-aged white guys rioting, do you?!?!
I can certainly imagine being without power for a prolonged period of time and then feeling like I wanted to lash out. What I can’t imagine is having to live like that. Over and over again.
All the time.
Powerlessness is a real problem in our society. The question is, “How do fix the feeling, that the underprivileged have, that they are without options, without power, without a voice?
People need to feel empowered. They need to feel like there is justice. They need to feel that they have some control over their lot in life and their course into the future. When people feel empowered, when they feel like they have a voice and that voice is heard, they participate in the societal processes that (we believe) will move us forward into progress.
You don’t see voter registration initiatives in the suburbs, do you? The people in the suburbs already feel empowered, so they register to vote and they take part in the other processes that continue to guarantee that their voices are heard. The citizens in the metropolitan neighbors, who are often ignored, don’t participate in the process and the self-fulfilling prophecy –whereby they are voiceless and powerless– continues.
That’s on a good day.
On a bad day, their voices are actively ignored by abusers of power.
What people want in this world, and what they seem to so often be denied, is justice. The idea that injustice, especially injustice that results from abuses of power, spark the deep feelings of powerlessness that lead to rioting.
Where is the justice when the powerless have no voice, and even when they do have a voice, it is ignored?
When power is abused, so that those in power can stay in power and so that those without power will remain powerless, justice is denied.
Do you happen to know of anyone in the United States right now, beholden with an immense amount of power, who also happens to be a racist? Anyone? Do you happen to know of anyone in the Unites States, maybe even the same person as you were just thinking of, who has a lot of power and misuses that power?
The examples of power abused seem to be so numerous as to stagger the mind. The problem with this is that those abuses of power don’t bother people with their own power in the same way that they bother the people without power.
Empowered people view abuses of power with (maybe) heightened levels of concern.
The disenfranchised in our society view abuses of power, especially abuses of power at the highest levels, as confirmation that the system is corrupt and that justice doesn’t actually exist for everyone.
The last three words of the Pledge of Allegiance are particularly stinging as I end this post, thinking about George Floyd. I doubt them in times like these.
It Occurred To Me Today 