What we do, who we are

What do the following five examples have in common? George Stinney (15), killed June 14, 1944;  Emmett Till (14), killed August 28, 1955; the Birmingham Church Bombing four, killed September 15. 1963; Tamir Rice (12), killed November 23, 2014; Tyre King (13), September 14, 2016? The obvious answer of course is that they were all children and they were all murdered by 'real Americans': adults men, and that there was little to no remorse shown by any of the criminals. At some point as a nation, we might want to ask ourselves why these children were killed and why we feel so little shame at their deaths.

It is hard to conceive of adults murdering children. It should be. It is not natural, and yet, through America's history, this very thing has occurred again and again. I recently read a brief description of the lynching of an eight-month pregnant victim. You would think that the victim's belly alone would have given folk pause but you would be wrong. Basic human decency simply didn't apply to people such as her. Whatever her 'crime', her baby had to pay the price as well. Bad luck for the kid I guess.  

The majority in this country has, for hundreds of years, been perfectly at peace with the murder and/or brutalization of innocents. That is not hyperbole, it is a simple statement of fact. People have died in this country as a result of suspicion; lies; whispers; arrogance; running, standing still; getting lost; seeking aid after an accident; reading a book; being. Any of these, could be an offense punishable by death. And that's as true today as it was during slavery. As a nation, we have stood by and shrugged our collective shoulders and said, "Meh" every time.

What is that? What is that? That is the American psyche built on the bones and graves of slaves and First People. We built that and if we ever want the bloodletting to end, we're going to have to demolish it, brick by brick. First of all though, we'll need to acknowledge it as truth. Yeah, good luck with that. 

For all the writing and preaching of people of color, I am very clear that this is not our problem to fix. We ain't build it, it ain't ours to disassemble. Oh it's certainly our house to inhabit but this edifice is not ours to repair or demolish. And therein lies the problem. 

When I burn my hand, I remove it from the source of heat and take immediate remedial action. When I cut my finger, I put down the knife, inspect the wound and take appropriate remedial action. When I burn your hand or cut your finger though, my responses are apt to be very different. I can either empathize or I shrug and walk away. In America we've become experts at shrugging and walking away, For 400 years we've been shrugging and walking away, denying aid and then blaming the dead for burning or bleeding to death. This is what we do. This is who we are. 

Here's the truth: there is something wrong with a whole lot of us and until we accept that, we're not going to be able to fix it. It's not that some of us don't care about others, it is that some of us can't. There is a huge empty space where our empathy should reside and that vacuum was first created all the way back in initial crucible of the Native genocide and hardened in the second crucible of the plantation. 

The reality is that we had to learn to feel nothing if we were to be comfortable with what our country has done to marginalized people for 500 years. We had to learn to accept the brutality that our government routinely meted and metes out to others in the 'best interests of America'.We had to learn that our interests trump everyone else's humanity and we have to continue to feel nothing in the face of a multitude of wrongs being done on our behalf every day. Flint? Rampant poverty - urban and rural? Repeated environmental catastrophes caused by oil companies? It's all okay with us as long as the trouble doesn't actually impact us directly. This is what we do. This is who we are. 

We have been living the Stanford Prison experiment but there's no off switch, there's no way to quit the experiment early. 

Artwork by Patrick Campbell

In the Stanford experiment, students - acting as guards - humiliated and harassed other students playing the roles of 'prisoners'. "Often, the guards operated without explicit, moment-to-moment instructions. [sic] Occasionally, disputes between prisoner and guards got out of hand, violating an explicit injunction against physical force that both prisoners and guards had read prior to enrolling in the study. When the “superintendent” and “warden” overlooked these incidents, the message to the guards was clear: all is well; keep going as you are" (from this New Yorker article available here). This is America today.  This is what we do. This is who we are.

We've been doing Stanford all over America for several generations, and we're clearly intent on doing it for several more. We have been brutalizing segments of our population and then blaming them for their victimhood. What our behavior bespeaks is a complete lack of moral responsibility or social conscience. This is who we are. 

We continue to be content to kill children, men and women, young and old without benefit of trial or even arrest because there is something very wrong with a whole lot of us. and if you don't believe me, read some of Colin Kaepernick's twitter feed.

We're less outraged about deaths in custody and death while being taken into custody than we are about athletes taking a knee during the playing of the anthem. We're more concerned about folk respecting the flag than we are about respecting the people living under that flag. Why? Because something is very wrong with a whole lot of us and we need treatment. STAT. This is who we are.