Reflecting On The Case Of George Floyd

Given that there are many places that I could begin with this difficult topic, I think I want to start by exploring why I think this is important and why I’m choosing to comment on it. Firstly, I think that this is important because this issue is a kind of great wave, that has both the potential to destroy and also to encourage a restructuring of fundamental institutions and deep seated traditions. The reason that I think it’s important to speak out on this, is that I think this event is similar to the Covid-19 pandemic in that it was both forseeable and something that does way more harm if caught late than if caught early. In my mind one important question to ask is, “why didn’t we address this properly sooner?” In the Covid case, we had tons of literature and warnings given many years prior to any form of outbreak, suggesting we had insufficient reserves of supplies in many areas, that were effectively ignored or at least not addressed properly. Likewise in the George Floyd case it’s no secret that we have certain problems within policing that need to be addressed and likely also a greater attention placed on mending race relations in the United States, so why did we not do enough to prevent this type of event? To me the short answer is, even had we done more this event would not necessarily have not occurred and the effect that this case has had on people both within and outside the U.S. might still have occurred. That said what is the solution set for the problems that we have in policing, and how do we actually address race relations effectively?

The first and perhaps most important thing I think we should try when it comes to reforming the police in some way, is take the time to actually define what the problems are and support these ideas with evidence. Obviously this issue is one that is emotionally charged for completely understandable reasons, and while I’m not going to ask people to feel less strongly, it’s important that we not allow our emotions to cloud our judgement. The reason is not so one can appear to be reasonable, but so that one can consider solutions that work for all or most of us rather than taking actions that help a few and hurt many others. The other thing that I think is really important here, is that we take notice that it seems like race and policing is the cover for what we’re really feeling and not the whole story. That isn’t to say people are not truly committed to “black lives mattering”, but merely that I suspect at least, we would not be reacting in quite the same way to these events given different circumstances. People have been isolated and sitting on their hands during Covid, and many people have been fed up with and frustrated by the general unfairness that they feel present both for themselves and others, for a long time. In my mind, this could just as easily have been a wave created by some immigration topic, or perhaps some controversial issue in science or some presidential scandal of sufficient magnitude. Though I’m going to run the unfortunate risk of sounding callus, George Floyd, even considering we want everyone to be treated properly under the law, was not famous nor was he a hero of some kind. He happened to be black, and apparently some form of criminal, and he was the victim of some fairly irresponsible and incompetent policing. Had the same thing happened to someone of any other color, the video might remain an apple of the public eye, but I sense that instead the story might’ve gone unheard or at least taken in a totally different direction. Since he looked a certain way, and the cop looked a different way, and what we dub “brutality” was present, this is a case of not only excessive violence or negligence against a citizen but also something that “must” have been motivated by skin color. I’m not asking anyone to be intentionally obtuse or optimistic, but unless someone has a clip or knowledge of these cops making more than a few racist jokes, in some truly bad faith and detestable way, I don’t want to pretend to read minds. If we have good reason to think something is race motivated so be it, but I’d like to be uncomfortable with pretending I know what someone is thinking, or how someone felt when they took some action.

However, the reason I’m here is not to tell people to turn off emotions, or to try to make an argument for never assuming racism where other explanations would suffice, instead I simply want us to be pragmatic about this. What do we win by over-feeling, destroying property and being incredibly upset about something that happened? Perhaps we bring attention to ourselves, perhaps sometimes we bring attention to the issue. The problem here for me, is that while I totally agree we want police to be as good as possible and we want people to have equal opportunity and get out of the business of discriminating based on silly things, it matters how we accomplish those things. If the end result of our action with good intention is not good, then we failed to accomplish our goal. The end does not justify the means in part, because the end and means are not independent variables. Any way we conduct ourselves to solve “x” issue will impact the issue’s later versions. We want our actions to be truly aligned with progress and not retribution. Even though being angry feels amazing when you feel you or someone you care about has been wronged, it’s not cause to think that you have all the answers. I certainly don’t have all the answers, and I’m not here to pretend that I or anyone else actually knows what’s best. What I would think is true, however, is whatever we do, we need to do it together. Only hearing certain voices because they look a certain way because you think they may have something key to add, is distinct from hearing people to get a perspective and another story. In an attempt at empathy we seek out people of black ethnicity to speak on this because we see them as being the ones effected, but I think we forget that anytime we play the race game, it’s very difficult to avoid being “racist”, the thing we fear, even with good faith.

I could absolutely say more about what I think this “wave” could become but anything beyond what I’ve said thus far strikes me as better saved for another article. As a final note, I hope that people will remember to take some deep breaths, be kind to one another, re-humanize people and consider everyone’s side even when you disagree, and be well.

Orion Aeneas Webster,

FourthEyeBlog author