The Best of All Possible Worlds in a Hurricane

Warning:  This post discusses race.  It’s okay to talk about race.  In fact, it is necessary community conversation and solitude contemplation.  If you can’t handle the discussion, try to learn to handle the discussion.

When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road   

 Just like the time before and the time before that.  

 In Patterson that’s just the way things go.  

If you’re black, you might as well not show up on the street  

‘Less you wanna draw the heat 

   

- Dylan, “Hurricane”

I said, “If that’s against the law,  

Tell me why I never saw   

 A man locked in that jail of yours  

Who wasn’t either black or poor as me.” 

- Kristofferson, “Best of All Possible Worlds”

Two episodes this week challenge my view of the world and its beauty and fairness – one, a hate-driven shooting rampage that killed nine people because of their race. Hold on, hold on. Stop there a minute.  Turn off the desensitizing news shows, stop looking for political or statutory solutions, and think about that. Some dude walked into a church, sat with people for an hour and then killed them because of their skin pigment or ancestry! … in America! …in the 21^st century!  Have you wrapped your head around that? 

The second episode involved a friend of mine returning home from work late Thursday night in an affluent neighboring county.  Given a hypothetical of the drive home, many of you could easily identify my friend as a black male in his early twenties. Conversely, if I told you on the front end that my friend is a black male in his early twenties, would you guess: a government official followed him from work; pulled him over, like many times before; and ordered him out of the car as six squad cars came screaming to the rescue.  My friend sat quietly on display beside the road for the good people to presume his crimes while the K-9 unit searched his car.  Finding nothing after two hours, the government released him with no citation and no record of the stop. My friend was told that he was pulled over because the government official “could not read his temporary tag”  aka: I’m sure you did something wrong and illegal. You can dream up all sorts of rationalizations, but if your explanation does not include prejudice, you’re wrong.

The essence of prejudice is conclusion based on generalization.  Can you guess the race and gender of someone who is shocked by my friend’s story?  or defensive?  or furious?  or resigned to accept it as the way it is and just happy he’s alive?  Don’t guess and don’t presume.   Instead, let’s examine our own thoughts and feelings and the foundations on which those feelings stand. Then, recognize the other perspectives and seek understanding of their foundations.  That search for understanding requires us to talk about it.

Prejudice and hatred are brothers. They live in the same house and nourish each other. Their home is our hearts, and their food is our souls.  Evict them!