My Middle-aged White Lady Perspective: Juneteenth

I'm not going to pretend - not even for a minute - that I know everything there is to know about Juneteenth.  What I do know is from the 30,000-foot level, which, as a particular executive I used to deal with always said, was "plenty enough detail for the moment."  

Juneteenth commemorates the day that Union soldiers made it to Texas and informed the slaves there that they were free, that they had been emancipated by President Abraham Lincoln - nearly two years earlier. That should be enough to give one pause, don't you think? You're free, no longer a slave, and it took that long for you to find out? (You can learn more here, if you're interested, or really, just do an Internet search. There's plenty of information out there.)

As a middle-aged white lady, I've done some soul-searching on racism, and tolerance, and bias, and prejudice and yes, on white privilege, over the years, admittedly most often when we hear about a black man, a black child, a black young adult, being killed by a white man in a police officer's uniform. I've talked about some of that in this blog, in the past, and I'm not proud of some of the posts I've written - because I can see my privilege showing, like a slip hanging below the hem of my dress back in the day. 

• I was too eager to see both sides of the story, and not hold both sides equally accountable. 
• I was quicker to judge one side and feel myself being dragged kicking and screaming towards a more balanced position, by the time I got to the last paragraph where I'd throw up my hands and wish for something better
• I would not commit to doing anything to make me better, to make things better, even in my own little circle, much less in the larger scheme of things.

I was - I am - a middle-aged white lady.  And until I went back and read some of my old posts, I didn't realize how much of a one I was.  Which is funny - curious/interesting/hmm... funny, not haha/laugh out loud funny, because I know I've talked about racism and bias and about trying to change my perceptions. I guess I just never put those posts here, or I have to think differently about how I tagged them.

Which brings me to the point of this: thinking differently. Challenging myself to think differently, or to at least think like the person I think I thought like, if that makes any sense at all?

A former co-worker sent me the information below. We've been discussing #BlackLivesMatter and racism and white privilege on social media lately. Most of the time we find common ground - sometimes it takes a bit - even though we have different perspectives. 

Her perspective includes being in the south, a black woman in a Mercedes with out-of-state-plates, driven by her black boyfriend, being on pins and needles as they were followed - for miles - by a white cop who only stopped following them when they crossed into another state. I will never have that experience - and she shouldn't have had it.

It's a simple list - only ten things - that white people can do to celebrate Juneteenth. 

Black and Brown people are calling on white people to stand with them and take action. They’ve been fighting too hard and too long. ​​​It made us think about what do we want white people to do to celebrate Juneteenth? 

10 Things We Want White People to Do to Celebrate Juneteenth

1. We want white people to deeply consider the wound of racism on the hearts of every Black American.

2. On Juneteenth we want white people to read, study Black history, Black poets, Black leaders, Black achievements.

3. We want white people to do things about racism as readily as they do things for their own children.

4. We want white people to make a list of resolutions, of promises, of vows about what will it take for them to use their power, their privilege, their platforms of power to give space to Black and Brown leaders.

5. We want them to find an accountability partner and make the list public of what actions they will take. They CAN do this on social media. A lot of those actions will be giving up privilege and making room for folks who they may not have noticed have no room at all.

6. We want white people to stop talking about how uncomfortable it is to talk about racism or police violence.

7. We want white people to stop being afraid of their own internalized white supremacy. I want them to search and look within at hard facts of thought and deed. Who cares about being comfortable? What about being true, brave and real instead?

8. Then we want white people to stop talking and listen to what needs to be done.

9. We want white people to plan on spending time in spaces with folks who are not like you.

10. We want white people to hold other white people accountable not on social media, instead with measured voices that call folks in to look and wrestle – to change. We are interested in courageous conversations, in hearing folks out and in allowing themselves to feel terrible and to let that feeling be a crucible for change.

I've read the list more than once, and I will continue to read it, to find my place in it, starting at the top and working my way to the bottom. Because I can do more than just find the posts that I thought I wrote that describe the me I am today, not the me I was seven or six or five years ago. 

And if I find I'm not the person I think I am today - or, even if I am the person I think I am - I have a path forward. Not just for today, on Juneteenth , but for tomorrow and the day after and the days, weeks, months and years after that.  

I'll still be a middle-aged white lady, informed by my experiences, but I'll be a better one, I hope. 

Sunday School Extra Credit 6/14/20

HUD Secretary and lone African-American on the Trump cabinet Dr. Ben Carson made a couple of classroom visits yesterday, chatting with George Stephanopoulos on This Week, and with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

I wanted to look at these two discussions together to see if there were any differences between the questions, and the answers. 

Let's start with George, who opened with Trump's claim that he's done more for black Americans than any president since Lincoln, and wondered if Carson stood by his boss's claim. Carson said it was better to talk about what's been done than to argue about who's done the most. The accomplishments he pointed to?

• Opportunity Zones, which he said were designed to bring money to neglected areas;
• Prison reform, which is "just the first step. There are other things that need to be done"
• Making funding for the HBCUs regular, and increasing the amount of funding provided.

George agreed that was a fair point, bust still asked if the president should stop making the comparison, given LBJ passing the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Act, Grant sending in troops to take on the KKK, and Eisenhower sending troops to enforce the Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision. Carson said all of that "is a significant part of our history" and that it's important to acknowledge it. 

George wondered how Carson has counseled the president about his tweets, his attacking protesters, and his not wanting to rename any confederate bases. Carson said we "should look at things from multiple perspectives" as we're a diverse country with diverse opinions, including the president's. 

So, I - I don't have any problem with him expressing his opinion as long as he's willing to listen to other opinions. 

And, he said, the US is a "destination country" -  a place people want to come to, not a place they want to leave. There's a reason for that, he said.

And we're the only ones who can destroy ourselves. And we have to stop, you know, putting everything into the arena of combat. And let's see if -- if we can find a way to work together because, if we don't, we're doomed.

So, it would seem, Carson hasn't counseled the president? 

George, never one to drop a bone, asked again if Trump's talk of dominating the streets, or saying he'll send in the troops - which admittedly seem 'combative' - were "appropriate right now." Carson dodged again, saying there are lots of ways to express things, and then he did what everyone does - explain what the president meant with his inflammatory remarks. Trump was talking about not submitting to anarchy, see? And we all agree with that, right?

We might not all express it the same way, but we would all agree with it. And so we've got to begin to look at the big picture, what is the thing we're aiming to do, not what someone said this day or that day.

So, what is that? What needs to be done right now, George asked.  Carson said we need to acknowledge why the protests are happening, we need to "open the discussion" and listen to the police and the protesters; we need to look at the communities where the protests are happening. He's all for peaceful protests, but not the destruction of businesses and livelihoods - "that's very, very bad" - and we have to talk about that, too, when we talk about "what makes sense."

Does it make sense to allow rogue police to move from one precinct to another?  Of course it doesn’t. Does it make sense not to use the technology that we have to help us to be able to investigate? No, it doesn’t.

We need to make the good things pervasive through our society, he says. 

And, regarding Trump's rally in Tulsa, site of the largest mass murder of blacks in our country, and it originally being scheduled for Juneteenth,  Carson said

...I did talk to the president about the Juneteenth event. I was pleasantly surprised at how much he knew about it already -- and knew about the Black Wall Street there and the whole history of it. And was thinking about making some remarks to acknowledge what had happened there and why we don’t want that kind of situation to ever occur in this country again. But, you know, it is what it is. And it’s probably good to have moved it.

Medically, he said the rally's being done in conjunction with the public health experts, and so it's acceptable - but, he added,

We do need to always, all of us, need to do what we can to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but it is very important that we utilize what we have learned about the disease so that we can live with it, rather than allow it to dominate us and determine how we’re going to live.

And, what about Trump's nomination acceptance speech, moved to Jacksonville, taking place on the 60th anniversary of Ax Handle Saturday? Carso said we're at a point where everything is being dissected and we "try to ascribe some nefarious notion to it."

We really need to move away from that. We need to move away from being offended by everything, of going through history and looking at everything, you know, of renaming everything -- I mean, think about the fact that some of our universities, some of our prestigious universities, have a relationship with the slave trade. Should we go and rename those universities?  It really gets to a point of being ridiculous after a while. And, you know, we’re going to have to grow up as a society. 

 I agree, to a point, with him on that.

In the Fox News Sunday classroom, the conversation started with the police killing of Rayshard Brooks. 

Wallace wondered if deadly force was appropriate, given the original offense of sleeping in the drive-through lane at Wendy's.  Carson said that this situation was not "clear cut, like the murder that occured in Minnesota" and that people who are experts need to review it before making any judgments. 

Wallace pressed on Carson's saying this wasn't clear cut. 

Because we don't know what was in the mind of the officer once somebody turns around and points a weapon at him. Is he absolutely sure that's a non-lethal weapon? You know, this is not a clear-cut circumstance. Could it have been handled better? Certainly in retrospect there probably are other ways to do things.  But again, we don't know.

Interesting. Note that Brooks' death has been ruled a homicide, so I guess someone knows something now. 

Wallace talked about the bigger issue, which is whether there's a racial problem with policing in black neighborhoods. He showed stats from Minneapolis (use of force against blacks 7 times higher than against whites) and nationwide that blacks are shot and killed by police at twice the rate of whites. And he asked Carson, a father of three boys, whether he or his wife had ever had 'the talk' with their children.

I had the same talk with them that my mother had with me and my brother, told them we should always respect the positions of authority like the police. I tell my sons the same thing. I've never had a problem, they've never had a problem. 

He also said that doesn't mean there are no racist cops, and that we have to get the racist cops out of the system. Reforms are needed, and this is "probably a good time to shine a spotlight on them and get it done." He said just like criminal justice reform, people have talked about it for a long time but didn't get it done.  

That's one of the things the president has made very clear, this is an issue, you know, and it will be looked at, it will be dealt with.

Wallace noted that his parents never had that talk with him, and he never had to have it with his kids, and that's part of the problem.  And then he moved to some of the things that the Democrats are talking about in their proposal, including a national misconduct registry and limits on liability for police officers, and asked if Carson thought the administration would support those. 

Carson said he expects the president will gather the appropriate stakeholders and look at everything, 

but obviously we don't want to create a create a situation where the police are under a microscope and that they don't want to do their job because they're afraid. That's not going to be useful... You know, when people make decisions based on anger or emotion, seldom are those good decisions.

So, that would be a non-answer? 

Wallace moved on to the cultural shift happening in the country, pointing to the NASCAR ban on the Confederate flag, and the Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee talking about renaming military bases, which Trump opposes.  The question? Is Trump at risk of being left behind? 

Carson said many of the bases were named after the Confederate generals 

as a conciliatory movement after the war and to now change that would be having exactly the opposite effect. We have to recognize that we have a history and to try and hide that history is probably not a smart move. You take the greatest book ever written, the most popular book, the Bible, it doesn't get rid of all the bad things and just talk about roses and flowers. 

He said that "smart people, wise people" use their history to improve, while "other kinds of people" try to bury their history. And he told a story about buying a farm in rural Maryland, with one neighbor putting up a Confederate flag in protest, and all the other neighbors put up American flags. The Confederate flag came down, and the Carsons became friendly with that neighbor.

A lot of this has to do with people getting to know each other and relationships, but you know, we should be proud of our country. The American flag is the appropriate emblem, but we shouldn't impose our will on others.

The last question was on Trump's rally, and he echoed the same sentiment as he did with George - we can let it dominate us, or we can learn to live with it. 

I was hoping for a little more from Carson that his now famous non-confrontational thing, and I also was hoping he would have been asked questions not just because he's the black guy on Trump's cabinet, but maybe something about what HUD might be doing regarding police interaction in their communities, or what's going to happen with foreclosures and evictions at the end of the month, and so on - you know, policy stuff. Or even a direct question about the Black Lives Matter movement, I don't know.

It is what it is, I guess.  If nothing else, I now know about Ax Handle Saturday, which is something I was not familiar with before.  Which just proves the point that we're always learning, if we're open to it. 

See you around campus.

Sunday School 6/14/20

For Sunday School today, I dropped in on a couple of classrooms: Meet the Press (NBC), for Chuck Todd's interview with Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), and Face the Nation (CBS), to listen in on Margaret Brennan's chat with Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, which is where we'll start, given the intense interest in what's happening in the Capital Hill area of that city, where protesters or anarchists have taken over and kicked the police out of a precinct house. 

Brennan welcomed Chief Best and started the interview with a discussion about how policing is being done in Seattle. Best, who is black, said she thinks "all the time" about how they can improve, and what they're experiencing on the job every day. She continued

I absolutely believe in accountability. But I think it's- we've moved away from using the word reform. We were under a consent decree and the Seattle Police Department for almost a decade. We followed every rule and everything that was asked of us to do, yet here we are--

The Justice Department, with the consent decree, "laid out a road map and a game plan for (the police) to follow" while a federal monitor reviewed things. But Best said what she believes, after attending one of the Black Lives Matter protests, and

looking at the 60,000 people that were there, signs saying, you know, defund the police, stop police brutality, you know, no qualified immunity. And there were thousands of people carrying those particular signs. And I just realized it was a moment, an epiphany, that this is a pivotal moment in history. We are going to move in a different direction and policing will never be the same as it was before...

And, Best noted, some of this is best left as conversation for "the politicians and the judicial people" to have, but

But I do believe that the considerations of the public need to be infused in whatever that outcome is.

Brennan introduced a discussion about the CHAZ, noting that "Republican lawmakers... they're saying it's like a war zone, that warlords are running rampant. The president himself has said domestic terrorists have taken it over." She asked Best point-blank,  "What is happening in this so-called Capital Hill Autonomous Zone?"

Best's answer, after noting the name change to CHOP, was that there are different objectives and different agendas and that

One of our real challenges there is trying to determine who is a leader or an influencer. And that seems to change daily. I know that many of our city officials and others are trying to establish some sort of communication with someone who can give us some direction about what the intent is and how we might move forward.

Brennan mentioned reports that "negotiations were underway with Black Lives Matter" and that they were looking for police funding to be cut before they'd hand back control of the area; she wondered how long it will last.  Best said she wished she had the answer, but wants things to move forward "as quickly and efficiently as possible, adding

But my concern as a police chief, besides that I want to be back in our precinct doing the work, is that we don't want... anyone there to be harmed. We don't want this to be something that devolves into a force situation. So we're really trying to take a methodical, practical approach to reach a resolution where everyone gets out of here safely.

And she said "for the time being" she believes it's peaceful.

Brennan shifted to what happened in Atlanta with the shooting of Rayshard Brooks. Noting that one of the officers was fired and the police chief has resigned, Brennan wondered, "...what is it like to be a police chief right now? Do you feel there is just zero room for any kind of error? And have you changed the way you're doing your job?"

Best talked about not being able to use pepper spray or flash-bangs or CS gas in Seattle, which changes some things. And she referred to the protests again.

...I saw many people carrying signs about defunding the police, ending police brutality and looking at resolving the qualified immunity issue. So I know standing there watching and listening that we're going to change in policing. We have to. It has to be a movement that involves everybody. And we need to reimagine and re figure out, if you will, how we're going to move forward as a country and as an organization to make things better for everybody.

 It's "incredibly difficult', but "with every challenge, there's opportunity. There's opportunity to move forward and bring people together and get positive change. I absolutely believe that." And, she said,

So some stressful situations are not going to deviate me or my organization from leading the way in trying to make things better for all of us.

Stress is not a reason for walking away - something that we all should remember. 

South Carolina's Tim Scott, who's one of only three blacks in the senate - and the only black Republican - was tapped to lead the Republican legislative efforts on police reform. The first question from Chuck Todd? What was his reaction to what happened in Atlanta, particularly with how fast things were moving. 

Scott said he thought the mayor deciding to fire the officer and having the chief resign was to "perhaps quell the response from the community" and said that the video was "disturbing to watch" but that he was

not sure it was as clear as what we've seen around the country on some of the other issues that have driven us to the point where we're actually having a serious conversation around police reform.

He described the Atlanta situation as 'an outlier.'

Todd wondered if part of police reform should include "a federal standard on use of force" and when it is or isn't required. Scott suggested (and I agree with him) that "it's really difficult to establish a codified and law standard" for that; there are "millions of scenarios" involved. That's why they've been looking for best practices, so they can

...provide that clarity and guidance for those departments who may need to have a better, better perspective on use of force. So we're getting at it. But I'm not sure we're ever going to codify in law a use of force standard.

Chuck wondered what a best practice would look like. Scott said that they're trying to get current officers, former officers, and citizens together to talk about what effective policies and better outcomes look like in the split second situations when it's determined whether to use force. Chokeholds, he said, is more clear: it's "a policy whose time has come and gone."

Todd wondered what has momentum at the federal level, pointing to a national registry of police misconduct, ending no-knock warrants, and reducing qualified immunity for police officers - all on the Dem's wish list.. Scott said they want to understand more about no-knock warrants, when they're used, against whom, demographics, and so on. All they know is the horrible case of Breonna Taylor.

So I want to take the Breonna Taylor case and have an act that requires more data to be provided so that we can actually come out with policies that are consistent with the best use of no-knocks or the elimination of no-knocks... I know that the House bill says let's just eliminate it for drug cases. But we have no information that supports that that is the best way to go.

He wants to have the discussion, and that'll be on the table if they get to the negotiation part, as will chokeholds and even a national registry. He thinks some of the approaches are very similar yet different at the same time, but he thinks there'll be a bill, and a law. Qualified immunity is a different issue.

I would be interested in decertification of officers, the left says that's a union issue that's kind of hard to get at. Qualified immunity on the right, that's an issue that most Republicans don't like at all, to include myself. So the question is, is there a path forward that we take a look at the necessity of eliminating bad behavior within our law enforcement community?... I think we'll find that. I'm not sure that it's qualified immunity.

It might not be decertification, either, he said, but "if we're that close on making progress, I hope we don't let partisanship get in the way."

Chuck asked about the president, and whether he can play a role in getting a bill across the finish line, "without, sort of, maybe, apologizing for some of his views on race over the years?" Scott thinks yes, saying Trump "is engaging now in a way that is constructive and helpful." And, Scott said, Trump's executive order, coming on Tuesday he thinks,

really does reference a national database strengthening and national database on police misconduct, from my understanding. It also talks about the importance of co-responders from a mental health perspective that both law enforcement and communities like that approach. So I think he's weighing in at the right time in a constructive manner.

And he pointed to Trump's West Point commencement address, noting that

His approach yesterday... is what we'd like to see a whole lot more of because it was constructive, it is important that all three levers of government work together to solve what is, in fact, the original sin of this country. If we do that, I think the American people will celebrate, neither party, but the fact that we worked together as one country.

Todd wondered if Juneteenth was a national holiday, if the scheduling issue with Trump's rally wouldn't have happened.

I do think the more information we have, obviously if there was a national holiday, Chuck, you're hitting the nail on the head, we would all know about Juneteenth. We'd all have an opportunity to celebrate it. And frankly, there would be fewer mistakes on that day.

He said that one of the things he wants to do in the Republican legislation was providing resources similar to how "it's done at the Holocaust Museum," for the African American Museum for celebrating Juneteenth, and commemorating the Tulsa race riot (which was really a massacre).

We think the more education, the information that we provide the better people behave in all corridors of this nation. but specifically within the law enforcement community. So we have an opportunity to do that in our legislation, we provide some resources for that historical perspective and understanding that I think will bring us closer together.

And will there be a national holiday, Todd asked?

Well, listen, I'm open to it. I've been talking to some of my friends throughout the country, including at the White House. I think that's a brilliant idea. The conservatives in the House seem to be interested in that. So you never know what may happen.

You never know what might happen, when conservatives "seem to be interested" in adding another federal holiday...

See you around the virtual campus, in accordance with the reopening guidelines where you are. And tune in tomorrow for Extra Credit, where I'll feature two Ben Carson interviews. I'm looking forward to seeing how the classroom dictates the questions - and the answers.