The Work

So what is the goal? What are we after? What do we want? I'm angry. The killing of George Floyd a week ago, its devastating video and the Minneapolis district attorney's leisurely meander to an arrest are all more reminders of the things I take for granted that are of constant anxiety, frustration and rage for black Americans. It's clear that many people are angry and we are seeing across the country and the world how that anger is running aground. How do we take the anger of the last few days and use it to challenge the system that caused it? How do we dismantle the strictures that divide us and treat us separately?

Smarter people than me are struggling with those questions and I look forward to learning from them. My stock answer is to vote but that process is slow and uneven and I have the luxury of time where others don't. It's still the most direct and effective means to enact change but I recognize that it is somewhat hollow in this moment. Further, it assumes that we all want the same thing. One of the many problems with weighing in on the actions over the weekend into this week is that there is a strong desire to lump groups together as having similar aims. The protestors want this, the rioters want that, the police want this, and so on. Those are all different groups and the individuals within them are all different. One person may attend a protest because they want justice for George Floyd, another may do so because they want to end police brutality, a third may take a baseball bat to a police car for no other reason than they are angry and it feels good. Every person at the peaceful protests (which largely outweigh any disruptive ones) hold different beliefs, just as a police department is made up of individuals who are of varying degrees of sympathy with the public outcry and you can't discern those beliefs by looking at a picture or a video. I am not here to speak for anyone other than myself so I might as well start with what I want. 

I want a deep reform of the American criminal justice system, which has been one of my top three voting issues since I began to vote in 2004. A violent, militarized police force is failing at its duty to protect and serve. Officers have difficult jobs, and I respect the many who uphold those difficult duties, but so do doctors and pilots and those industries do better at, I hate to say it, policing themselves. Further, at every turn, American criminal justice treats black people different from white people. Complaints made by African Americans about police officers are less likely to be sustained than those made by white people. Black people are about twice as likely as white people to be pulled over by law enforcement for a traffic stop and black and Latino drivers are much more likely to be searched once they are pulled over. Inequalities exist about who is more likely to be arrested for drug-related crimes even when there are no inequalities regarding who uses drugs. White defendants have their most serious charges dropped as part of a plea bargain more often than black defendants and when charged, black people get more time—20% more—than whites convicted of the same thing. That is intolerable and so I want to change that, which, to me, means voting in local and national politicians who will invest in better training, more checks on police violence, more incentives for internal affairs to root out bad cops and fairer judges and district attorneys. I plan to vote with those goals in mind. 

If you have been spending any time on social media in the last few days you have been bombarded with many messages about how to react to this crisis. I may not share the thoughts of some these messages but I recognize the feeling behind them and honor that. This is everyone's fight, but it is not my spotlight and so I don’t need to agree with every position. Still, that onslaught of memes, quotes and hot takes can be overwhelming, confusing and make it difficult to know what to think. This is where personal principles are key. The principled mind has beliefs that it knows and can turn to in every situation, applying the same logic every time. They are not emotional, and they don't make exceptions. An unprincipled person must shoe horn their beliefs to fit a new scenario, usually in an effort to avoid feeling like they are wrong. 

Immanuel Kant spent his life searching for universal principles. It is the cornerstone of his categorical imperative, which boils down to treating people the way you want to be treated (and do we need that now or what?). He was so principled that he believed lying was wrong in every situation. If men with guns came to my door and asked where Liz was, according to Kant, I would be morally bound to tell them to the best of my knowledge. If I lied and said she'd gone out, and the gunmen left only to see Liz sneaking out the window to elude them, Kant would say that, by lying, I might as well have pulled the trigger myself. It is difficult to be principled, it often means taking the unpopular path or hurting people's feelings (or worse) and I fail at it because I am human and weak, but I try. I will note, especially in this discussion, that Kant was not so principled that he was incapable of writing racist and sexist things, which should shade our opinions of him as a person and note how they fly in the face of his greatest lessons. 

One of my principles is that violence is ineffective at changing minds or, as Maya Angelou put it “Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.” To that end, you will not see me joining in the looting that has taken place across the country and represents a small part of the demonstrations but has dominated a large part of the media coverage and conversation. This is not because I care more about buildings than I do human lives, an equivalency that I find to be false, but regardless, I don't care about the property, I care about the strategy. I am not instructing anyone on how to respond, if someone feels that the only way they can express their frustration is through rioting then so be it. Buildings can be replaced (though some businesses won't be) and lives cannot. But my goals are to gain justice for George Floyd and to make the criminal justice system more equal, and rioting fails on both accounts. Only a jury can deliver justice for George Floyd and rioting has been proven time and again to entrench the status quo and help the cause of so-called law and order politicians who usually end up putting more black bodies behind bars (if they even make it there). A recent study that I read ten days ago, before Floyd was killed, lays this out clearly using the 1960s Civil Rights struggle, a non-violent movement that made incredible gains before splinterization and militancy (to say nothing of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) deluded its focus, as a background. The takeaway is as follows: nonviolent protests bolster support, while violent protests create discontent and resentment. This has been proven even during this quarantine when a groundswell of popular support moved Georgia district attorneys to arrest the killers of Amaud Arbery without violence. Even now, the unsupportable video of George Floyd's death, no less terrible than Arbery's, has been replaced by much more nuanced images of riots and property destruction (some provoked by cops, yes, some started by white nationalist groups, yes, but this game is not fair) and has become a footnote to a conversation about unrest, which is already being used to bolster candidates who advocate for law and order; "if you loot, we shoot"; and the use of unconstitutional force against citizens, including the president—who has been begging for anything to talk about that isn’t his COVID-19 response—and his reprehensible but effective-where-he-needs-it stunt in front of a church yesterday. 

I hear the arguments for rioting and I am not concerned here in whether or not it is morally right. The system is more than unfair, it's dangerous, and has been that way for a miserably long time. The anger is justified and righteous but I'm not talking solely about right, I'm talking about effective. The American Revolution is not an apt comparison to this situation (and the French Revolution, which I've seen trotted out as an example of violence leading to change, is bizarre seeing as it is a case study in mob rule run amok). The IRA and ANC under Apartheid also do not apply, as both achieved change through peaceful dialogue. And it is not lost on me that today is the second day of June, Pride month, which began because of riots in New York City for gay rights. However, gay rights began making political gains through cultural normalization, when straight voters could see that gay people were their neighbors and coworkers, not Stonewall rioters. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as principled an American as has ever lived, understood this. Yes, he said "a riot is the language of the unheard" but even while today's newsletter is meant to be a declaration of what I am doing, not a prescription for or judgement of others, I will urge anyone to investigate the full context of that quote, given in an interview in which Dr. King also said "I will never change my basic idea that non-violence is the most potent weapon available to the Negro in his struggle for freedom and justice. I think for the Negro to turn to violence would be both impractical and immoral." A few months before he was murdered Dr. King put the point even finer, saying "Every time a riot develops, it helps George Wallace." Further, I don't buy the "we tried peaceful with Colin Kaepernick and it didn't work" retort. Not only does that not address the relative effectiveness of rioting, it puts too much pressure on Colin Kaepernick's kneeling as the only civil rights activity of the last five years. Besides, police killings of African Americans has steadily declined. In 2015 American police killed 305 African Americans including 81 people who were unarmed. In 2019, that fell to 260 killings, 29 of unarmed people. Is this a slow and frustrating process? It is. Is 29 unharmed people 29 too many? Of course it is. But riots have not been proven to speed that slow and frustrating process.

Being principled also means denying yourself sometimes. It was not without a little jealousy that I saw so many people at the peaceful protests throughout the weekend. It would have felt good and right to be there with them. Everyone's situation is different and I would never shame anyone who attended for showing their support but I have my reasons why I could only be there in spirit. While this pandemic continues to rage (a pandemic that kills black people 2.6 times more than white people), I’m staying at home when I can to keep those around me safe. 

Finally, being principled means being open to the idea that I'm wrong. People have been working for equality for far too long and it would be arrogant to suggest I have the secret formula right here in this newsletter. I don’t. We all have to make our own decisions, execute our own strategies and live by our own principles. I have learning to do. I can always be better. I can always work harder for the things I want. I'll try. I'll read. I'll listen. I'll donate. I'll vote. I've used Dr. King as a shield for my arguments but I suspect that my brand of moderation would run counter to, if not totally offend, his unbending progressivism and I must let him push me to places where I am uncomfortable. That goes for you too. I started this newsletter as a way to stay connected with people and that’s more crucial now than ever. If I’m displaying a blind spot, overstepping my bounds here or otherwise betraying the cause, tell me. Push back on me. Point out what I haven’t considered (but only if you want to, it’s my responsibility to educate myself). My goal will remain the same—a more equal justice system—but my methods can change. It's that principle that must drive my actions and must keep me from being distracted by the overwhelming amount of emotions that inevitably swirl in these times. The Talmud, a book of principles that has formed the backbone of an oppressed people for thousands of years, says "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now. Love mercy now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it." I will do my best. 

Stay safe everyone.