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| Two women pray in Louisville, Kentucky near the intersection where David McAtee was killed on Sunday evening [Darron Cummings/AP Photo] |
In the midst
of all the looting and rioting, I was seeking to clarify my thoughts about the
issues black people face in America. There are a number of things going on all
related to the unnecessary and tragic death of George Floyd but for this little
essay, I wanted to focus on the phrase “black lives matter” and the
organization “Black Lives Matter”.
I am a
science and data-oriented person, but I also want to know personal stories of
people affected by the current chaos. While I can feel deeply for people as
individuals and in groups, I want to know the truth as clearly as possible so I
generally don’t let feelings determine my actions even when I do let them spur
me on to investigating an issue and responding to what I find. So, this is what I know so far and what I
think about it.
To set the
stage, here is some common ground we all should have:
·
George Floyd should not be dead today. He was
killed by police while handcuffed and held on the ground by an officer placing
his knee on Floyd’s neck. While we don’t
know the motivation of the officer, we can see that the officer murdered George
Floyd. That officer and the other three who watched should be punished to the
fullest extent of the law. It was horrible and should not be tolerated in our
society.
·
Black lives matter. ALL black lives matter. I am
not diminishing this point by saying “all lives matter,” but that is a different
subject. Here I am saying that ALL black lives matter.
·
Peaceful protest is a right protected for ALL of
us. Following the killing of George Floyd, most protesters wanted to peacefully
express their legitimate grievances. Unfortunately, a small number of
troublemakers and looters led to violence. These reveal three groups: the
peaceful protestors, opportunistic looters, and rioters.
·
Police reform is necessary. The police have been
given increased power over the years including military hardware due to the Homeland
Security bill(s). In most cases, the police have been responsible and have
served the people, but there are always a few that are bad. Police are people,
after all. The problem lies in that bad police are difficult to get rid of due
to multiple reasons, not just unions.
·
Police Reform at the federal level is not necessary
and should not be desired by anyone as it will give the federal government and
federal bureaucracy control over police nationwide. This seems to be the opposite
of what we all need.
If You Are
Going to Get Through This Essay…
If you are going
to get through this essay, you will need to get through the next two sections
without deciding ahead of time, before seeing any evidence, that the conclusion
is wrong. If you don’t at least read the whole thing, your knowledge of the
facts will be limited. You may disagree with my conclusion AFTER reading to the
end. At least that is an attempt to be honest with yourself. So let’s proceed.
Cognitive
Dissonance
If I say “black
lives matter” and then I say I do not support the organization “Black Lives Matter”,
what is your initial reaction. Will you reject the fact that I started by
saying “black lives matter”? Does something clench up inside you? If so, you are
experiencing something called cognitive dissonance. That is a normal thing in
human beings, but you should all learn to get past that reaction so we can hear
other’s viewpoints and look at evidence offered, otherwise you will stay stuck where
you are and will not grow in knowledge. Avoiding cognitive dissonance and thus avoiding
other’s viewpoints keeps us comfortable and keeps us stuck in an echo chamber
of our own ideas or those fed to us, some of which may be incorrect. Cognitive
dissonance is not a bad thing since it warns us about ideas that are so
different, we need to take a close look at them.
Consider
Nicolaus Copernicus. He was a mathematician and astronomer who proposed that
the earth and other planets revolved around the sun. His idea was not perfect since
he thought the sun was the center of the universe, but we certainly know that
he was correct that the sun is the center of our solar system. There is a long
history here [i],
but generally his ideas were not accepted quickly. We have been taught that “the
church” rejected the idea because it conflicted with the Bible, but consider
that many other astronomers also rejected the idea because it was so different
than what they already believed. Once Copernicus had gathered lots of data and his
work was published, some after his death, astronomers and the church were
convinced.
Until
Copernicus had made his observations and published the data, there was no proof
that the sun was the center of the solar system, so scientists were reluctant
to agree. So cognitive dissonance is the warning mechanism we all have but we should
be open to the evidence that may disagree with our current beliefs.
This is just
one example but we have all felt this. Have someone tell you something that you
disagree with and see how you feel. It is not a bad thing, but it does tell you
that you might be holding on to a belief too tightly and that you should
examine all the evidence.
Here is one
for practice. I’ll give you two statements contradictory statements, one of
which you will mostly agree with and one that you won’t agree with. How you
react to the statements will reveal how you feel.
- Donald Trump is not a racist and has been a great president who has helped black Americans.
- Donald Trump is a racist and only tries to hurt black Americans.
Think about
how you felt and which statement you agree with. Remember this is just practice
before looking at whether Black Lives Matter wants to help black Americans or
not. Our perception on those two statements has been fed to us by the media.
After all, we don’t know Trump personally so everything we know about him has
come from the news and other media.
If you
examine the evidence, Donald Trump was generally loved by the media until he
decided to run for president as a republican, when the media started labelling
him as racist. So, is Donald Trump a racist or not? We don’t know! We only know
what we have been told by the media. But we CAN go find actual evidence such as
pictures and actions taken before and after Trump became president. Since that is not the purpose of this essay,
you can do that separately and make your own decision.
That may
have been a hard section to get through, but if you made it this far, you’ll
probably make to the end since you at least have an open mind. If you struggled
with that, then you will struggle with the rest of this. You will want to
ignore the evidence and keep believing a media narrative. You decide.
Truth
Next, you
will need to grapple with the fact that multiple truth statements can exist at
the same time. Many of these truths are expressed in Turning Point USA’s video “ALL
Black Lives Matter” by Graham Allen. [ii]
·
We can fully stand with peaceful protestors who
want to bring about positive change.
·
There are racist people in America. We will
stand with you to stop true racism.
·
America as a whole is not a racist country. The
system itself is not racist but racists can abuse the system.
·
Looting, rioting, violence is not justice. It is
not even protesting. Rioting and looting do nothing to further the cause of
justice.
·
The entire world was united because of the death
of George Floyd. We have an amazing opportunity to come to the table together
and make positive change. In a matter of a few days some have attempted to burn
that opportunity. Antifa attacks along with the media that profits from tragic
stories are trying to make us believe that we are more divided than we really
are.
·
The loss of an innocent life does not justify
the loss of other innocent lives. One example is the death of David Dorn, a black
retired police officer, who was shot to death in the street trying to stop
looters from stealing TVs from a store.
·
If black lives truly matter, then it shouldn’t
only matter to the black lives that 100% agree with your or fit your media
narrative (in this case, that police officers are racist and the policing
system is racist). Just like equality,
true equality applies to everyone, not just the people you agree with.
·
If all black lives don’t evoke the same level of
justice and call for action as George Floyd, then “Black Lives Matter” is not a
justice movement, it is a political movement. You cannot claim to want justice
for everyone, then pick and choose who that justice belongs to.
·
There are bad people in every profession but 99 percent
of police officers are good and treat people with respect no matter their skin color.
What
about the organization Black Lives Matter?
Innocent black
lives that been affected by looting and rioting. Consider this, do you see them
as collateral damage to achieving the cause? Whoever does, is a hypocrite in
the black lives matter movement.
Here is a
small list of the deaths of innocent black Americans. Access the references to
see pictures and short bios.
In Chicago, 18 people were killed on
Sunday, May 31st making it the single most violent day in Chicago in
six decades. There were others killed on the previous Friday and Saturday too. Those
who died include:
Darius and Maurice Jelks[iii]
18 year old Teyonna Lofton
30 year old Danyal Jones
36 year old father of 2, Angelo
Bronson
32 year old John Tiggs
18 year old Lazarra Daniels
18 year old Keishanay Bolden
You can see more including pictures here.[iv] Also here.[v]
In Louisville, Kentucky, David McAtee who
was a 53-year-old African American man known for offering free meals to
officers who stopped by his restaurant
In Oakland, California, David Patrick
Underwood, a 53 year old black security officer killed in the riots[vi]
In St. Louis, Missouri, David Dorn, a 77
year old black retired police officer, a father of five[vii]
In Indianapolis, Indiana, 38 year old Chris
Beaty, a former offensive lineman for Indiana University football team
In Davenport, Iowa, 22 year old Italia
Kelly
You can search
and find many more deaths of innocent black Americans due to violence during
protests. Each of these has a story the ended too soon. This doesn’t even
address those who were wounded, of which there are many.
Our hearts
break also for those who lost businesses. We have been confronted by others who
say “its just property, you shouldn’t care more for property than for people.
Insurance will just replace it” But we
do care for people when we are heartbroken over the loss of their property. They
work hard to make a living and often either don’t have insurance or their
insurance doesn’t cover “civil unrest.” The business that they poured their
hearts into to make successful is not just some property that can be replaced.
It is an entity that serves their community and allows them the dignity of
making their own way rather than being dependent. It is a cruel thing to say
that their business should be destroyed because it is just property.
“Korboi Ball
is a black firefighter who poured his life savings into a Minneapolis sports
bar that was reduced to a pile of bricks. He has no insurance.” A Washington post
article states “It’s not just the owners but their employees, too, whose lives
have been devastated. After suffering the worst economic destruction since the
Great Depression during the pandemic, which disproportionately affected African
Americans, many had just returned to work — only to see the business that
employed them destroyed. My heart breaks for Gina Robinson, a black woman in
Chicago who posted this message on Twitter last week: “I’m so hurt. I’m barely
surviving and not only did y’all burn my job (Walgreens) down but the grocery
store in my neighborhood was looted for what. Now my mom can’t get her
prescription or food. How was this ‘for us’?”[viii] Think about that. Walgreens (or Target,
Walmart, or CVS) doesn’t have to rebuild there if the people in the community
feel free to treat a business that serves their own community and provides
opportunities for their friends and neighbors. The rioters and looters are destroying
their own community and their own opportunities.
What about Hussein
Aloshani, an immigrant from Iraq who owns a deli. A New York Times article stated “many store
owners said they felt like the victims of misplaced aggression. They said their
businesses, already ailing from an outbreak of the coronavirus that has been
particularly devastating to small and minority-owned businesses, may not
recover.”[ix]
There are
more destroyed businesses than we can list here. Even where a business had some
windows broken, the owner and employees are affected by the violence.
Non-police
related homicides
As shown in
the following figure from a study done by the Harvard Kennedy School,[x] the number of homicides of black Americans by black Americans has been between
40 and 50 percent for the last 25 years. While “blacks suffer much higher rates
of personal violence and violent victimization than whites,” (the homicide rate
for blacks was almost eight times higher than the rate for whites) “The vast
majority of homicides are intraracial, with 84 percent of white victims killed
by whites and 93 percent of black victims killed by blacks.”
While comprising
about 13 percent of the American population, “black people have consistently
accounted for close to half the country's homicide victims”[xi] and the previous graph shows that most blacks
die at the hand of other blacks. Young black men are killing each other at an
alarming rate every year. Black males accounted for about 52% (or 6,800) of the
nearly 13,000 male homicide
victims in
2005. Black females made up 35% (or 1,200) of the nearly 3,500 female homicide
victims.
So in 2005, 8000
black men and women were murdered. Don’t all those black lives matter? Where is Black Lives Matter? Every death is a
tragedy, but they are consistently ignored. Why doesn’t Black Lives Matter get
involved in figuring out solutions to the problem of black on black homicides?
The causes are generally known, such as a lack of education in poor black
communities. If Black Lives Matter cared about black lives, they would help black
Americans be involved in their children’s education, which would decrease
temptation to commit crime and increase the prosperity of the black population.
But Black Lives Matter is generally silent about this problem and does nothing
about it. Where are the protests that bring attention to the poor education for
inner city blacks?
Abortion
Finally,
what about abortions? I am not arguing about why women get an abortion nor am I
condemning those women. No doubt they feel like they have no other options.
Aborted black
babies account for 40% of abortions in the US.[xii] In the Arizona Capitol Times, Walt Blackman,
a member of the Arizona House of Representatives, wrote[xiii]
When you use those percentages, it
indicates that of the over 44 million abortions since the 1973 Roe vs Wade
Supreme Court ruling, 19 million black babies were aborted. African Americans
are just under 13 percent of United States population.
White women are five times less likely
to have an abortion than black women. Perhaps it is a matter of availability. A
study by Protecting Black Lives, in 2012, found that 79 percent of Planned
Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance
of minority communities.
In the past, we criticized the tobacco
industry for targeting young people with their advertising. Recently, the
nicotine vape industry has been criticized for similar practices. The prevalence
of abortion providers in African American and Hispanic neighborhoods indicates
the abortion industry is targeting too. It smacks of the eugenics-linked past
of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger and her views of contraception
and abortion as ways of diminishing the black population.
And
According to the Guttmacher Institute,
which generally supports abortion, in 2011 360,000 black babies were aborted.
CDC statistics for 2011 show that 287,072 black deaths occurred from all other
causes excluding abortion. By these numbers, abortion is the leading cause of
death among blacks.
360,000
black babies aborted in a single year!
Black Lives
Matter has been around since July 13, 2013, yet I have heard nothing about how
the lives of
Three hundred
and sixty thousand black babies matter. I suppose Stalin’s declaration that “one
death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic”[xiv]
is true in the case of black babies. I am not arguing about providing “health care”
in the form of an abortion. I am stating the each one of those aborted babies
is a black life that matters, but Black Lives Matter doesn’t want deal with all
the dead babies since no one in politics or the media gets emotional about aborted
babies. We all get emotional when a white police officer kills a black man and
the situation must fit a certain narrative, one that gets black people angry.
The number of blacks shot to death by police was 223 in 2017, 209 in 2018, 235
in 2019, and so far 88 in 2020.[xv]
Those statistics do not distinguish between people who were resisting arrest or
not, but according to a Washington Post database, in 2019 there were nine unarmed
black people that were killed by police.[xvi]
I want to be clear that each one of those deaths is tragic and I am not
diminishing their lives whether they were innocent or not.
If black
lives really mattered to Black Lives Matter, the deaths of so many caused by
abortion, black on black violence, and the rioting and looting we see today, would
certainly matter just as much.
Right!?!
A NYT Op-Ed
I read the NYT
Opinion piece[xvii]
written by Chad Sanders and there was one paragraph in his set of suggestions
on how to make a real impact. I agree that sending “positive vibes”,
“thoughts”, and similar communications are not at all helpful but I think that
this one paragraph will not help Mr. Sanders’ cause and will likely injure it.
The suggestion states that those who are already on board with the BLM cause
should send
Texts: To your relatives and loved ones
telling them you will not be visiting them or answering phone calls until they
take significant action in supporting black lives either through protest or
financial contributions.
An action
that holds your family or other significant relationships hostage to some
action is manipulation and will cause many to push away from supporting the
cause. People find manipulation repugnant. No one likes being punished into
some sort of “re-education”.
I know some
who have already done this and while it may shock family into doing something,
there will be great damage to the relationship. Why destroy families even more
when there is a better way? Clear communication is much better for those family
members that are open to listening, even if it takes a few tries. Often, both
sides learn something about the other that bring them closer. I have
experienced this in the past with my son-in-law when we had a discussion about
our different perspectives on the term “white privilege”. We understood each
other a bit more.
Don’t
misunderstand me here. Mr. Sanders’ article was insightful and well written. It
helped me understand a little more just like my conversation with my
son-in-law. So, if a family member is trying to understand, cutting off
communication is one of the worst ways to bring about change. As it affects me,
I feel like I am being pushed to take action when I don’t have the full picture
and I feel like I am being pushed to think a certain way to satisfy the cause
or the ideology. I would rather have the conversations necessary to understand
and then take action with a clear understanding of what I am giving my life to.
Conclusion
Getting back
to the original question. Do black lives matter? We can state conclusively that
every black life matters, absolutely.
But should I
support the organization “Black Lives Matter”? For myself, I do not find
evidence that the organization is worthy of support, not even support from the
black people they claim to speak for.
The evidence
is clear that only those black lives that further the narrative and increase
the power of the organization are the lives that matter. George Floyd was
murdered by a policeman with three others complicit in that murder. I can fully
support the peaceful protests being held in show our politicians that something
needs to change in the way policing is done. Reform is needed and it will take
many ideas and many voices to reach a solution. At the very least, bad cops
should not be immune from prosecution for wrongs they do. Bad cops should be
weeded out before they wrongly kill anyone while good cops should be encouraged
and protected.
If Black Lives
Matter really cared about black lives, then they would also focus on all
the other black lives that are lost. They would seek to find the root causes of
all the lost black lives and fix the real problems. Blaming everything on the
police and racism is the easy way out. A black man killed by police is an easy
way to gain public sentiment and get everyone fired up for the cause. When
policing is reformed some black lives will be saved and that is good, but if Black
Lives Matter really cared about black lives, why are they only vocal for those
killed by police when that number is so small compared to the number of black
lives lost due to other causes?
A Few Thoughts
About a Solution
A concept
called the “success sequence”, if followed, greatly increases your probability
of success in life, including financial success. The success sequence is
simple, get at least a high school degree, start working full-time, and get married
before having any children, in that order.
The report can be found here: https://www.aei.org/research-products/working-paper/millennials-and-the-success-sequence-how-do-education-work-and-marriage-affect-poverty-and-financial-success-among-millennials/.
While this
version of the study is related to “millennials”, the concept applies to all
young people in general. According to the study, people who get married before
having children have a 95% success rate and are not poor, while those who had
children first have a 72% chance of being poor. Even in low-income families,
those who married before having children have a 71% chance of escaping poverty
while those who had children first only have a 41% chance.
If Black Lives
Matter cared about black lives, they would bring to our attention all those
black lives that must deal with living in poverty and being tempted to enter a
life of crime all due to lack of opportunities to get a good education. They
would focus their ire on those who control the terrible education low income
areas receive.
That is the
harder solution of course, but people banding together to bring about change is
a powerful force. Currently, Black Lives Matter only focuses on political gains
and uses the power of the movement for its own gain. Black Lives Matter should
prove they care about ALL black lives and use the power they have been given by
everyone who supports them to bring about real change at the root. In my
worldview, I want everyone to succeed and have a good life. I mean everyone.
Skin color is not a factor at all in a human being’s potential. A good
education free of social propaganda is a significant factor and would go a long
way toward saving the lives of all those black people. Reforming under-performing
schools is possible if parents work with those schools in their districts. It
is difficult and takes time, so perhaps Black Lives Matter could provide
guidance and support and even represent a group of parents one city at a time.
The lost
potential for our society is tremendous when the focus is on only one cause of
black deaths, such as the police, instead of all the causes of black deaths. Take
a look at the book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story
of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot
Lee Shetterly, or watch the movie, and think about how many mathematicians like
Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden are lost
every year. How many generals like Colin Powell, entrepreneurs like Oprah
Winfrey and Daymond John, and neurosurgeons like Ben Carson are lost?
What about
these revolutionary black lawyers?[xviii]
·
Macon Bolling Allen, First African American
Lawyer & Judge, born in 1816
·
Charlotte E. Ray, First Female African American
Lawyer, pass the bar in 1872
·
Jane Bolin, First Female African American Judge,
sworn in 1939
·
Thurgood Marshall, First African American
Supreme Court Justice, appointed in 1967
·
Barack Obama, First African American President
of the United States, 2008
With 19
million black babies aborted since 1973, plus all of the tragic deaths by all
other causes every year, how much human potential has been lost?
Shouldn’t
Black Lives Matter care about that? Shouldn’t we all?
If Black
Live Matter doesn’t care about ALL black lives, then you should not support them.
[i] Sheila
Rabin, “Nicolaus Copernicus”, Last modified 09/13/19, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/copernicus/
[ii] Graham
Allen/Turning Point USA, accessed 06/12/2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51tgkrCXZvc
[iii] Matthew
Hendrickson, “After brother, cousin killed, Canadian man laments: Third-world
countries are safer than Chicago”, Chicago Sun Times, 06/08/2020, https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2020/6/8/21282805/chicago-murders-darius-maurice-dionte-jelks-englewood-canada
[iv] Tom
Schuba, Sam Charles, and Matthew Hendrickson, “18 murders in 24 hours: Inside
the most violent day in 60 years in Chicago”, Chicago Sun Times, 06/08/2020, https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2020/6/8/21281998/chicago-violence-murder-history-homicide-police-crime
[v] AP
NEWS AGENCY, “Nearly a dozen deaths tied to continuing unrest in US”,
Aljazeera, 06/03/2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/dozen-deaths-tied-ongoing-unrest-200603162256559.html
[vi] “Sister
Of Federal Guard Killed In Oakland Tells Congress ‘He Did Not Deserve To Die’”,
CBS San Francisco Bay Area, 06/10/2020, https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/06/10/sister-of-patrick-underwood-federal-guard-killed-in-oakland-tells-congress-he-did-not-deserve-to-die/
[vii] Kim
Bell, “Retired police captain shot to death at St. Louis pawn shop in slaying
caught on Facebook Live”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 06/03/2020, https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/retired-police-captain-shot-to-death-at-st-louis-pawn-shop-in-slaying-caught-on/article_d482138c-0224-5393-bd87-9898bebb3fd1.html
[viii]
Marc A. Thiessen, “The deaths that don’t fit the ‘defund the police’ narrative”,
Washington Post, 06/09/2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/09/deaths-that-dont-fit-defund-police-narrative/
[ix] Caitlin
Dickerson, “‘Please, I Don’t Have Insurance’: Businesses Plead With Protesters”,
05/31/2020, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/minneapolis-protests-business-looting.html
[x] Anthony
A. Braga and Rod K. Brunson, “The Police and Public Discourse on
“Black-on-Black” Violence” in New Perspectives in Policing from the Harvard
Kennedy School, May 2015 https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/centers/wiener/programs/pcj/files/PoliceandPublicDiscourseBlackonBlackViolence.pdf
[xi] Matthew
Cella and Alan Neuhauser, “Race and Homicide in America, by the Numbers”, US
News and World Report, 09/29/2016, https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/race-and-homicide-in-america-by-the-numbers
[xii] KFF.org,
“Reported Legal Abortions by Race of Woman Who Obtained Abortion by the State
of Occurrence”, https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/state-indicator/abortions-by-race/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D
[xiii]
Walt Blackman, “Abortion: The overlooked tragedy for black Americans”, AZ Capitol
Times, 02/25/2020, https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2020/02/25/abortion-the-overlooked-tragedy-for-black-americans/
[xiv] Oxford
Reference, “Joseph Stalin 1879–1953, Soviet dictator”, https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00010383
[xv] Statista,
“Number of people shot to death by the police in the United States from 2017 to
2020, by race”, Published by Statista Research Department, Jun 5, 2020, https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/
[xvi] Hiram
Reisner, “Opinion: Black Lives Matter rhetoric doesn’t match facts on police
violence”, HOUMA Today, 06/10/2020, https://www.houmatoday.com/opinion/20200610/opinion-black-lives-matter-rhetoric-doesnt-match-facts-on-police-violence
[xvii]
Chad Sanders, “I Don’t Need ‘Love’ Texts From My White Friends”, The New York
Times, 06/05/2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/opinion/whites-anti-blackness-protests.html
[xviii]
Emily Mermell, “5 Revolutionary Black Lawyers That Changed America”, Law
Preview, Last Updated 02/05/2020, https://lawpreview.barbri.com/revolutionary-black-lawyers/
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