Contributed PHoto
Trish Loving & Alan Lovins.
(Opinion) One Saturday morning I was teaching a small group at my synagogue, Beth El-Keser Israel. During the sabbath service, this group comes together to learn prayers and the Bible.
I don’t remember what the subject was, but I recounted a story from my childhood. I said, “When I was little, my mother said if I ever got lost, I should find a policeman and ask for his or her help. The policeman is your friend.”
A Black member of the congregation looked and me and said, “That’s not what my mother told me!”
It stopped me in my tracks. It hadn’t occurred to me to make that connection, even though I’ve been an activist all my life in support of equal rights and equal opportunity and treatment for Black Americans.
Black lives in America have never mattered as much as white lives. That was certainly true during the 250 years of slavery, after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, after the Carnage of the Civil War, during the 100 years of Jim Crow, after the 1960s progress in racial integration and some movement toward more equal opportunity for Black Americans.
There has been slow progress over the last 150 years but inequality has persisted, even after we elected an African American president for two terms.
The demonstrations and protest marches involving Black and white Americans feel different this time. There are more white people involved, and the emotional outpouring doesn’t seem to dissipate. Maybe there is now a majority of American who envision real equality, and maybe it will persevere.
Underneath the prejudice there has always been a sentiment that Black lives do not matter as much as white lives. It is a very destructive notion, and it justifies oppression and murder.
My wife, Trish Loving, and I have watched the proliferation of signs that say “Black Lives Matter” in front of houses in our neighborhood and elsewhere in New Haven. We decided to put one in front of our house. It has occurred to me that if these signs proliferated in our neighborhood and other neighborhoods in our city, it would convey a message that large numbers of all racial groups want equal rights and opportunities for all Americans.
If other cities across the country took the example of New Haven and put signs up in their neighborhoods, it could be transformational. It has some advantages over demonstrations and protests. The signs remain in place. They don’t have to reassemble. They don’t require organizations, regrouping, or time devoted to demonstrate.
It is a constant and gentle reminder of the work that needs to be done.
I appreciate this article. We need to be aware that racism is a system under which we all have grown up. Inevitably the most liberal white person has internalized some racist attitudes and thoughts and these come out despite our best intentions (not that I have ever seen you exhibit those attitudes or thoughts).
The work of eradicating racism is work that white people must do, through hard work and systemic self-examination.