#Racism: For Some White Folks, It’s On Blacks to “End” It

By now, many of us have heard some form of what we as Blacks need to do in order to not be murdered by police or how our behaviors can put an end to racism.

Really? It’s on us?

That’s right. A police murders a Black man, woman or child (yes, child) and right away, we get all the instructions. Interesting.

For example, here are just a few things we need to do to “end racism:”

“Just Comply!”

Really? So it isn’t that the cop was taught racism from a young age. It was the lack of compliance during arrests that made them turn racist all of a sudden and simply complying would wipe away all those years of teaching from parents and grandparents. Understood.

“Stop Resisting!”

So, all we have to do to end centuries of systemic racism is to not resist during arrest? That’s what fixes it?

Take that, MLK and Rosa Parks. You did all that for nothing.

“Fix Your Communities!”

Ah, so if we “fix our communities” (whatever you think that specifically means), again, racists will totally abandon everything they were taught from relatives. And what “specifically” is wrong with our communities, other than what you see on the news? You talk about the media “dividing us” whenever we call out racism, but when the same media focuses on all the crimes we commit, you don’t have much objection to them then. Wonder why.

Actually, no I don’t. I know.

“Stop being deadbeat fathers!”

Oh, golly…I didn’t realize that only Black men could be deadbeat fathers, as I have seen many white males fall into this category as well. So, racism ends once there is not a single deadbeat Black father in existence.

Not to brag as this is nothing to brag about, but I have two teenage children and I have never left them except when the Army sent me on the three deployments I went on during my time serving. When a white person who was taught racism as practically a baby sees me on the street, how would he or she know that I’m not a deadbeat?

Is there an interview process? Polls taken? Do they give Black men those little notes like we used to get in school, where they ask “ARE YOU A DEADBEAT?” and we have to check the box next to YES or NO? (Yes, kids…we used to actually WRITE notes to each other without phones) Seriously…is there some kind of vetting process where a white person uses a Black man’s parenting status to determine whether years of taught racism should continue or end? I mean, according to this “order,” I should be cleared from any and all racism, right?

That sounds lovely. But oh, right…how about Black children who are not yet fathers? Are they “protected” in any way? How would the “stop being deadbeat fathers” apply to them?

“Stop Being Criminals!”

Oh, okay. So people become racist upon the presence of Black criminals? I hate to break this to you, but not every Black person has a police record, nor is a drug dealer. Again, is this checked out in some way before a specific white person “chooses” not to be racist? I don’t know, but I don’t develop any kind of general attitude toward white people upon seeing one who is a criminal, nor would this alone change anything I had already been taught. But what part of not being a criminal leads to the end of racism? Maybe that’s our problem. We’re trying to stop the wrong part.

Or are there degrees of Black criminality that warrants certain levels of racism? Is that how it works? I stole a pencil off my 3rd grade teacher’s desk once and I believe I was two days later returning a library book in middle school. Would that be second or third-degree Black criminality? “How much” racism would that entitle me to?

“Have Some Compassion for Police Doing Their Jobs!”

Police are taught to profile Blacks and people of color. This is no secret. I imagine that there are a few who follow that training and that’s as far as it goes.

But oh…what about those who are taught racism as children? How does that training look to them? So they were already taught by relatives to treat Blacks as less than human. And now, here comes professional training from a government agency that basically reinforces that they have to be weary of Blacks, even before knowing a single thing about them. I’m sure that goes far in eliminating their existing racist ideals.

“Police Murder White People Too!”

Ah. So because a white person is viewed as a jerk to a white person, there’s no way that person could be racist. Is that what we are to understand?

No, it’s not even like that. Hold on…

…here is how it goes. Cop A murders a Black person. Cop B murders a white person. So Cop A couldn’t be racist because of how Cop B responded in his incident a thousand miles away?

Wait, wait…so you mean that we should not judge one cops based on the actions of others?

The same way that cops don’t profile one Black person based on the actions of…oh, never mind. Cops don’t swing like that. Moving on.

“But What About Crime in Chicago?!”

You first. You say practically nothing about urban communities except how horrible they are. But as soon as a racist cop murders a Black person, then all of a sudden, you pretend to care. It’s mainly just a stale attempt to win an argument, but again, what about it? What does the crime in Chicago have to do with a cop being racist?

So all it takes to end racism is to get the Blacks in Chicago to stop killing. So if I have this correct, the trained professionals can be as racist as they want, until the people you consider as criminals, thugs and animals behave themselves first.

That’s just like saying a teacher doesn’t need to do any teaching until the student learns everything he or she needs to know elsewhere. If cops don’t have to be cops until the need for cops goes away, then…right.

“Be Better Parents!”

When a police officer is so threatened a by a child that he or she totally forgets all the periodic training received in all their years of service, the cop doesn’t even need to accept responsibility there. Even in that case, it’s the fault of the child’s parents.

Because yes, unruly children only come from bad parents. No way that a good parent had child who lost his or her way. Never happens, right?

Not to mention, the existence of these “heathen” parents means…what for the police training again? That it can be disregarded? Ignored? Minimized? Is there a “parent” portion of the periodic training they receive? Again, are there “degrees” of parent status that determines how the cop is to behave?

“Stop Believing the Media!”

Oh, that’s what it is! The media is running around and killing people, claiming that white cops are doing it. They’re even going as far as placing them on video. The media.

No, it’s not the police officers themselves committing these acts. Nah. It’s the media. Somehow, the thought that the media may put something on television turns cops racist. Because again, it couldn’t be what cops were taught growing up. Nooooo…it’s the media and the possibility that they will show it. That is what starts the ball rolling on whether a cop chooses to murder a Black person. What the media will do in the future is directly responsible for what an already racist cop chooses to do today. Makes perfect sense.

Facetiousness aside, I could keep going. But apparently, this has been the problem all along. All we have to do is follow all these instructions and racism ends.

But wait a minute…what about the ones who actually are racist? Do they have to do anything? I find it strange that the one who behave certain ways don’t have to change much, but the ones on the receiving end have to do it all to stop the behavior. Society’s response is that the bad behavior is “too hard” to stop, and the recipients are raising the most hell about it, so let’s just go after them.

It’s like with thieves. They break into your house, steal and flee. We don’t hear from them, but we hear from the homeowners. What do we do? Question if the doors and windows were locked. Ask if they had expensive possessions. Then we reinforce that they do all this and that so it doesn’t happen again. We don’t advocate much on stopping the behavior. Because of course, the thief was on the straight and narrow, having absolutely no plans to commit burglary until he saw that open door/window.

As for men who rape women, of course they decide on the spot to commit the act, and it is solely based on what the woman was wearing, whether she was by herself, if her drink was left unattended and so on. That’s why we always blame the women. It’s too difficult (and inconvenient…you know, we might lose friends or they might be mad at us) to raise up about the man committing the rape. No, it’s just easier to lay it all at the woman’s feet. Men never think about it long ahead of time or groom the woman to see what they can get away with. They never crack jokes…none of that. They respect women to the fullest, until they do one of these things. Then this just forces regular men to change up. That is what we are to believe?

The encouraging thing is that people are not going for it anymore. More women are speaking up sexism, sexual harassment and sexual assault. And Derek Chauvin is proof that police are going to be held accountable for their actions when they decide that it’s okay to murder a Black person based on what society says.

But as for Blacks needing to act this way or that way so racism can end, and let me be clear on this…we did not create racism. Therefore, it’s not on us to “end” it.

Can I come and set your house on fire, only to blame you because your home has too many flammable objects in it?

I didn’t think so.