Walking Around While White

What is an onlooker?

And is an onlooker an actor, a player in the action, in the drama?

It seemed as if Derek Chauvin with his hand in his pocket and his knee on George Floyd’s neck was an onlooker watching the crowd gather and he watching and seeming so clueless and passive and he knelt there.

Charlottesville parade and subsequent riot over taking down Robert E. Lee’s statue there and 

then George Floyd’s murder, some would call merely his death, not a murder.

He died in police custody while black.

Are you shopping while black?

Are you jogging while black?

Are you boarding the plane while black?

Are you giving blood while black?

And driving your car on a country road while black?

Are you safe in your apartment while black?

How about while building your new house in the upscale neighborhood while black?

I walk around the block and neighborhood while white.

I cross the do not cross tape next to the bulldozer/construction while white.

I use a bad credit card at the restaurant while white.

And go  5, even 10 miles over the speed limit while white.

I ask for ice at the hospital while white, no, we will bring it to you, they say.

And they do within minutes.

Everywhere is a white institution.

The neighborhood, the restaurant, the street, the hospital, the bank, the department store, the airport, the school.

It is mine and I belong here.

Even in the Minneapolis neighborhood outside Cup Foods convenience store at 38th and Chicago Avenue belonged to the white officer.  Though he is accused and on trial for what happened, still and yet George Floyd is dead, a father, a son, a brother, a boyfriend, a friend,

Each is dead.

It is a tragedy that this loved man is dead.

And it is a political issue.

Not a tragedy.

It is politics vs. what is right.

We are on one side or the other.

When there is only one side.

Even this essay will be something to agree with or disagree with.

This police intervention could be a mistake or accident now being defended. In fact, the ultimate in being defensive.

Some states are now allowing police and doctors to apologize without meaning they incriminate themselves.

So he was overbearing, a mistake, an accident, not intentional, let’s even allow that interpretation, let’s have an apology.  

Defensiveness is rampant, easy to come by.

Apology is hard to find.

No matter what the incident.

Let’s look to apologize.

It doesn’t take away the situation, it happened but still it is something.