J: I'm feeling the need to clarify something from our previous discussion. (If you have already heard what I'm about to say, my apologies in advance.)
My support for the movement and the phrase "Black Lives Matter" is NOT based in any way on the idea that non-black lives DO NOT matter. I am one of the biggest lovers of people and human life you will meet. Rather, the phrase is aimed at calling attention to the systematic discrimination against (and killing of!) black people pretty much since the first African arrived on this continent but still going on, as I hope you know.
The phrase Black Lives Matter is meant to call attention to a crisis. Just as, if you spotted a house on fire, you wouldn't (I hope) run around saying "All houses can catch fire!" You'd hopefully be making a call about the specific house that was burning. Same with Black Lives Matter. The phrase is what is on purpose, because we're talking about a specific fire, a specific crisis affecting black lives much more than others.
For many too many Americans (even many who are considered extremely well educated) this comes as a surprise, due largely, in my opinion, to the completely crummy job that is done in the US of teaching our own history. Slavery and racism are engrained in US history, in our Constitution, and in the way the country developed. Yet these facts - and many others - are seldom mentioned. I think we may have spent 15 minutes discussing slavery in US history in HS.
I realize it may sound as though I preaching at you. I suppose maybe I am. Part of the reason, I think, is that, not that long ago, I was shocked by just the argument I'm making to you now. We live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, right? How can this be true? How can everything I learned growing up be so wrong? Notheless, I am convinced much of what I grew up believing IS wrong. The new knowledge turned my worldview on its head.
Do you have Netflix? If so (and you are, as I gather, a thinking man), please, please watch the movie "Who We Are, a Chronicle of Racism in America". It does probably the best job I've seen of discussing this issue....
All I can say is, please watch the movie I mentioned. And feel free to write me back.
posted by Michael Crowell at 3:27 PM
2 comments
John, Michael and Diane prepare to set out from Irondequoit
John and Diane cruise downhill in Wayne County
John and Diane biking on a wet road north of DeRuyter.
John and I welcomed a new rider in Roscoe: Diane Sipple.
Aileen, Bob and Jose (front): our hosts in Accord.