Normally on Fridays, my chancla and I delight in bringing you items that you will give a flying chancla about via The Flying Chancla Report and if we can make you laugh it makes us even more delighted, but given the deaths killings that have happened in Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas we just aren’t feeling very flippant or joyful.
We are going through some awful times as a nation, truly awful and we all need to take a long hard look at ourselves and our institutions. So no funny stuff today, instead a reaction to President Obama’s public response to the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile…
Image via YouTube
Yesterday, I got an email from the White House and the subject line read: “President Obama: ‘We are better than this.’” The email contained the video and text of President Obama speaking about the deadly shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and I’m not gonna lie to you the subject line made me scoff and bristle because you know what? We ARE NOT better than this. This is exactly how effed up we are and saying “we are better than this” is LAME and meaningless at this point. It doesn’t mean sh!t.
How does saying, “we are better than this” keep black men alive? How does saying, “we are better than this” get to the institutionalized racism that exists and so many are blind to?
Even though the subject line made me cringe, I still listened to the speech because maybe the subject line was off, but the rest of the message would hit home. I’m sorry to say it didn’t. It didn’t “hit” in my opinion, it was more like it was trying to cushion the blows that keep coming at us.
ALSO READ: Why the Videos of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile Are So Important
Please listen for yourself, if you haven’t already. Full disclosure: I like President Obama, I voted for him twice, I still like him, but I don’t have to like everything that comes out of his mouth.
The theme of his whole message is that we are better than “this” and we “can” do better and given the monumental crapacity of what we are doing I don’t think that message is strong enough. It lets us all off the hook way too easily like, “Oh, well deep down we’re not that bad, we just need to be better.” Screw that! Collectively we are so effed up that we are killing our own because RACISM (yes, I said it…RACISM!!! Racism is real, it lives, it’s strong and it feeds and grows on our denial) and it’s not that we “can” do better it’s that we MUST do better, we HAVE to do better. What we are doing is unacceptable.
We need to stop pretending like we are better than “this.” We are not. If we were better, we would do better and we are not. How can we change, truly change if we don’t admit how incredibly messed up we are? It’s deep, deep, deep and we are being shallow AF.
I’m tired of sugar-coating the issues. People are being murdered and we’re still trying to act like we’re some kind of melting pot success story.
Now, I will say that although I don’t agree with the overriding theme, I don’t disagree with everything President Obama says in the speech. I agree with this part:
There is no contradiction between us supporting law enforcement — making sure they’ve got the equipment they need, making sure that their collective bargaining rights are recognized, making sure that they’re adequately staffed, making sure that they are respected, making sure their families are supported — and also saying that there are problems across our criminal justice system, there are biases — some conscious and unconscious — that have to be rooted out.
Yes, to that! Can we please get over this either/or mentality that we are so locked into? Wanting changes in the criminal justice system because we see that it does not treat people of color fairly does not therefore mean that we think all cops are bad. Of course not. We know there are good officers, officers worthy of being called peace officers, but that does not negate that they exist within a system that is full of problems and biases. We’re not trying to throw them out with the bathwater, we just want to clean up the waters.
I also agree with this part of the speech:
…I hope we don’t fall into the typical patterns that occur after these kinds of incidents occur, where right away there’s a lot of political rhetoric and it starts dividing people instead of bringing folks together.
You know how when someone is trying to battle an addiction, the first step toward recovery is admitting that there is a problem? I think the same holds true for us as a nation. We ALL have to admit that we have a problem before we can get over it. That means liberals, conservatives, middle-of-the-roaders and people of every hue in this country need to stop politicizing this and realize that fixing it benefits every one of us.
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