Some thoughts about George Floyd, America and slavery#
He was killed the way disobedient slaves were killed. #
Of course if he were white he would not have been killed. #
There have been other black people killed by police, recorded in video and shared on the web. Those were relatively instantaneous acts. George Floyd's murder was deliberate. It could have been stopped any time during the nine minutes. #
It's hard to imagine in words what might have been going on in the head of the murderer. What did he think was going to happen? In his mind what was his relationship with Floyd? Did he see him as human or property? Did he think there would be consequences?#
I have a good American education, and read a fair amount of history as a child. I was fascinated with it, but until last year I had never read a first person account of slavery. Just facts. Dates. Politics. The war. Reconstruction. Jim Crow. Voting rights. #
Our official American history treated our black ancestors the same way slavery did, as property. They didn't have a voice. Their story remains largely untold.#
America is built on slavery the same way Windows is built on DOS. We never removed it from our operating system. The code is running every time America does something. It's part of our implementation. Some corrections have been put in place in an attempt to route around the most egregious wrongs of slavery, but those changes can be reverted and they are, right now. #
Being responsible is not the same thing as "being the cause of." #
I am a first-generation American, a child of people who fled Europe for their lives during WWII and found safe haven in the United States. #
Your ancestors could have been living their own injustices, as mine were, but you and I now live in the United States, where the crimes (not a strong enough word) against Native Americans and African Americans are deeply ingrained. #
By coming to America, we became part of a culture and political system that was built on slavery. We haven't yet shaken that off. The George Floyd murder is the most graphic evidence most of us have seen that slavery is very much still with us. #
We are responsible, in the sense that it is up to us to respond. #
BTW, if you haven't listened to the 1619 project podcast, it's an easy way to quickly get a different perspective on America. There's a pretty good chance that you, like me, have not heard this story yet. Which is of course ridiculous. #
I think that everything we do to try to get out of the slavery system is doomed to fail until everyone understands the history. We have to teach it in the schools to people of all races. This is America, your country. Here are the problems you will have to deal with when you grow up, so you might as well learn about them now. #
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