It has almost been a month since the world witnessed the gruesome death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minnesota on social media platforms. At this time of writing, the protests, the riots, and the demonstrations have eased. At its peak, large swathes of cities across the United States were filled to the brim with protesters screaming "No justice, No peace!". The Black Lives Matter movement was reinvigorated. However, just as quickly as the protests have caught steam, what started out as peaceful demonstrations eventually turned into horrifying chaos as rioters and looters took over the streets burning and looting shops. People watched in horror and shock as they watch looters break into stores and grab whatever they can, razing and breaking everything in their paths. Business owners hurried to board their stores up to avoid the fate of the surrounding businesses.
The news media flooded the airwaves with stories of protests across the United States. As the mainstream media focused on the protests, their right wing counterparts put the riots on blast. While the nation is rocking with protests against racial discrimination, suppression, and police brutality, the irony is lost on a largely demoralized police force trying to restore order to the cities whose citizenry have seemingly lost its trust.
**************************************
A 100 miles away from DC, Shenandoah County boasts of its bountiful farmlands and apple orchards, and its riveting views of the Appalachian and Blue Ridge mountains ranges to either side of the valley. The equally breathtaking Shenandoah River, immortalized in John Denver's classic song Take Me Home Country Roads, snakes through the land and keeps the valley verdant green. Population: 44,000. Deep red, very white, very conservative Christian populace. There is one church for every 500 people in Shenandoah County, compared to the liberal DC suburb of Fairfax County, which has one church for every 2,700 people.
Shenandoah County is Trump Country, proudly and unabashedly. The county also represents the cookie cutter Trump base: it is very white (90%), blue collared, rural, with only 20% of the population holding Bachelor's degrees or higher. Shenandoah County fought and won to become a gun sanctuary.
In this part of the world, protests in Washington and Richmond are viewed with disdain and even open contempt. "It is not just black lives that matter", they say, "All lives matter." On online community forums, the majority lashed out on their standard boogeymen: Antifa, George Soros, the Clintons, Anthony Fauci, the WHO, the CDC. "Why are all those people protesting in the midst of a pandemic?," they asked. "It is darn stupid, and hypocritical. But then what can you expect from sheep?"
A sheep is person who cannot think for himself, that he merely obeys the government without question. A sheep is a person ruled by fear. He gets his information from mainstream media, which constantly lies about President Trump just to make him look bad. A sheep is a person who wears a mask because of the coronavirus, what an idiot.
Out here in the Shenandoah, all lives matter. It's not just the blacks. The lives of whites, browns, and Asians matter too. That belief is as wide as it is strong in this area. We respect law enforcement here. We are proud of our Southern Heritage. The Confederate flag is but an acknowledgment to our history, not a symbol of slavery and oppression. Racial inequality doesn't exist here.White privilege is bullshit. We don't have that here, sheep.
**********************************
Officer X has always dreamed of being a policeman as a child. He is native to Shenandoah county and has been on the police force for several years. As he has always been, he woke up today to face another work day, serving his community and coming home at the end of his shift to his loving family. He got along well with his neighbors, has many friends, and is a respected member of the community. He loves to fish, is a fixture at the local Moose lounge, and gets along with pretty much everyone. He considers himself a good cop--one who is honest and fair. As he finishes his breakfast, he kisses the wife goodbye and hugs the kids. He checks himself at the mirror one more time before heading out. Oops, the badge is a little tilted to the side, he fixes it, and steps out of the door.
**********************************
Leon is a pastor at one of the local churches in the town of Edinburg, one of the six towns of Shenandoah county, pop 1,100. He is an outstanding man, self-made. He is a real estate investor, and a decorated Master Sergeant of the USAF, 24 years in. He owns rental properties in town. He has never been arrested, has zero criminal records. He is an outstanding citizen.
Leon did not think that on the first day of June, exactly 7 days after George Floyd's death, he will have his wrists cuffed, and he will be hauled off in front of the mob who was mocking him and calling him racial epithets. Leon experienced his first arrest, at the hands of Officer X, who has known him for years in the community.
Leon is being arrested for brandishing a concealed carry gun which he claims he needed to show as he felt in danger of his life. A group of 5 people cornered him when he reprimanded them about taking an old refrigerator at the dump of his apartment complex. He was verbally abused and physically threatened. He felt that he needed to get his gun out while he called 911 for help.
Leon was arrested. The group of 5 mocked his arrest. The group of 5 are all white. Leon is black.
***********************************
Tensions across the political spectrum boiled over in DC and other major cities. The president was rushed into the bunker, news media reported. The historic St John's Church was set on fire. And eventually, protesters were allegedly tear gassed and pushed aside so the president can walk to St John's to call for law and order. With so many things happening around the country, it took more than a week before the regional news outlets got a hold of the story about Leon's arrest. Several more days before national news outlets brought it out into the open.
The local sheriff promptly and publicly apologized. He apologized for Leon's arrest. That should not have happened, he says, and he would have done exactly the same as Leon did had he been in his shoes. The apology was sincere, and he vowed that the department cares about the people of color in our community. Two sheriff office personnel were placed on leave pending investigation.
The story eventually reached the community pages of Shenandoah county on Facebook. There was righteous anger towards the group of 5. They were called different names, judged to be practicing incest, drug addicts, "crackers", scum of the earth, they cried. Fists up in the air, they raged against the apparently racist incident.
It seemed like at that moment, the racial tensions that pervade the big cities have started coming home to roost in the backyard. It is real, it is happening, it has happened here, and it has been happening here.
But as expected with any news regarding frail race relations in this part of the state, within a couple days, interest in the subject has faded. The community social media page has moved on to other topics of interest. Throughout the entire social media post interaction, white privilege was never talked about. It is a touchy subject here. It is hard to talk about white privilege when the county which is 90% white has lower than median household income compared to the rest of the US, and a staggering $20,000 lower household income that median household income in Virginia.
For many people here, it is quite hard to empathize with the Black Lives Matter movement because there really isn't a whole lot of opportunities for social interaction and integration to make them form an opinion, their own perspective. Sure, there might be a token minority person at work who they have a pleasant relationship with, or a neighbor down the road who do neighborly things with them, or that cheerful gospel choir member at church. But that hardly qualifies as social education on race. There is a serious gap in racial familiarity that a holistic paradigm shift from a narrow point of view on race cannot be fully realized and therefore is capriciously filled in by Fox News, Breitbart, and other right wing organizations to fit their agenda.
They are told that there is absolutely no reason for them to feel white guilt. After all, they have nothing to do with the slavery that happened centuries ago. They are told that if "black lives really did matter", then why aren't we talking about the murders in Chicago and black-on-black crime? Why aren't we talking about the widespread poverty in the inner cities run by the libs? Why aren't we talking about that blacks hold the highest incarceration rates despite only making up less than 20% of the population? They are told that the Civil War was about fighting for the principles of the people of the South--it was never about slavery. Robert E. Lee is an American hero, not a traitor. Why aren't you sheep talking about this?
Remarkably but not really surprisingly, racial inequality is a taboo subject in the area. Talking about it is considered race-baiting. So, the path of least resistance that people take is to simply not talk about it. It is an uncomfortable truth that racial disparity and white privilege exists where we are even though we refuse to talk about it. The general populace of Shenandoah county are not aware that black students are 338% more likely to be suspended at school than their white peers. Nor are they aware that black people are 7x more likely to be wrongfully convicted for murder than their white peers. Or that black people are 20% more likely to be pulled over for routine traffic stops, and along with Hispanics, are more likely to get tickets during these stops. Or that the percentages of students who attend high-poverty schools are blacks and Latino at 45% compared to their white counterparts at 8%. How about the fact that black business owners even those with excellent credit scores are denied business loans at twice the rate of their white counterparts?
Remarkably but not really surprisingly, racial inequality is a taboo subject in the area. Talking about it is considered race-baiting. So, the path of least resistance that people take is to simply not talk about it. It is an uncomfortable truth that racial disparity and white privilege exists where we are even though we refuse to talk about it. The general populace of Shenandoah county are not aware that black students are 338% more likely to be suspended at school than their white peers. Nor are they aware that black people are 7x more likely to be wrongfully convicted for murder than their white peers. Or that black people are 20% more likely to be pulled over for routine traffic stops, and along with Hispanics, are more likely to get tickets during these stops. Or that the percentages of students who attend high-poverty schools are blacks and Latino at 45% compared to their white counterparts at 8%. How about the fact that black business owners even those with excellent credit scores are denied business loans at twice the rate of their white counterparts?
Racism is so deeply embedded in the fabric of social consciousness that we cannot even see it even if it is staring directly back at our faces. Due to a serious lack of racial familiarity and connections, we helplessly submit to racial prejudice to mask our own ignorance and biases. In the way society views racial stereotypes, blacks are often portrayed as inferior, less intelligent, less pretty, more animalistic, more prone to violence. The stereotype for blacks has always been negative. Black men have historically been portrayed as brutish, violent, and hypersexual.
Systemic racism has made it so that society elevated Asians as the model minority to further degrade the confidence of the black community. Systemic racism is the reason why in the subject of Colin Kaepernick's kneeling during the national anthem, Fox News mouthpiece Laura Ingraham called Drew Brees' initial racially insensitive comments as his right to express an opinion. The same Laura Ingraham who told Lebron James to "shut up and dribble" when he did the same. Systemic racism has made it so that blacks have to go through a whole lot of hurdles inorder to access the same conveniences and opportunities in society that is readily available for white people. Systemic racism is present in the voting booths that are purposely suppressed to weaken the black vote. Systemic racism is present in the underfunded inner city schools. It is present in the disproportionate number of minorities working in low wage jobs while facing the threat of death in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Systemic, deeply ingrained in the collective subconscious of society itself, racism is the reason why Officer X arrested Leon in the first place. Officer X did not wake up today bent on arresting a black man and call it a day. The inconvenient truth is that Officer X was conditioned to believe the white man first over one with a darker pigmentation regardless of circumstance. That, my friends, is systemic racism. Had Leon been white, and was surrounded by a group of 5 black people, the story would have been different. The story would be about a servant of God, standing his ground, gun in hand in full defense of the Second Amendment. In that alternate universe, the group of 5 black people will have been arrested with Officer X calling for back up squads to "diffuse the situation".
In a world where the fairness of your skin alone inspires trustworthiness, innocence, and righteousness, the darker pigmented populace are tasked with the burden of proof every time. Emmett Till paid with his life under this circumstance and inspired the Civil Rights Movement more than half a century ago. The Civil Rights Movement whose envisioned goals remain elusive in its entirety. The struggle persists even after a black man was elevated to the highest position of power of the only superpower in the world. The struggle will continue to persist until society itself truly look inward, listening to understand rather than just hear, and experience a holistic paradigm shift.
In a world where the fairness of your skin alone inspires trustworthiness, innocence, and righteousness, the darker pigmented populace are tasked with the burden of proof every time. Emmett Till paid with his life under this circumstance and inspired the Civil Rights Movement more than half a century ago. The Civil Rights Movement whose envisioned goals remain elusive in its entirety. The struggle persists even after a black man was elevated to the highest position of power of the only superpower in the world. The struggle will continue to persist until society itself truly look inward, listening to understand rather than just hear, and experience a holistic paradigm shift.
*********************************
In one of Shenandoah County's 80-some churches, a pastor looked over towards the attendees. Spaces in between them and masks on, the faithful listened to the Parable of the Lost Sheep, Luke chapter 15. When you have a hundred sheep and one goes missing, Jesus said that you will leave the ninety-nine and look for the lost sheep. In the story, Jesus lets the people know that the other ninety-nine sheep are not in danger, their lives matter, but they are not in danger. The one lost sheep needs saving, and the shepherd will be filled with joy once he finds it, takes him home, and keeps him safe.
The symbolism of this parable to the current struggle of the Black Lives Matter movement cannot be emphasized more. Be it spiritual salvation or the daily struggle of survival in pursuit of happiness, the parallelism is strikingly powerful.
A half-mile away from this church, a squabble breaks out at the entrance of a local grocery shop. A shopper was refused entry because he refused to wear a mask as mandated by the governor of the state.
"I am an American, and I am exercising my freedom! I am no sheep like the rest of you! You stupid liberals are too dumb to think for yourselves. Sheep!". The irate shopper storms back into his parked truck. As he leaves the vicinity in rage, a light breeze picks up and his signature blue flag wavers in the air: Keep America Great! Trump 2020.
********************************
END
x
