Don’t Just Argue, Live Your Values
The other day a friend sent me a YouTube video titled, “What the Left Won’t Tell You About the Plight of Black People and the Myth of Systemic Racism.” I’m sure he sent it because he thinks I’m mistaken in believing that systemic racism actually does exist. I watched the video. It was a montage of soundbites from a few select famous black men saying, essentially, “Racism is a thing of the past and we need to stop talking about it;” “There is far more ‘black on black’ violence than any police violence toward blacks;” “The reason why blacks are more violent and criminally-minded is because their fathers weren’t around when they were growing up;” and “See, these violent ‘riots’ are proof that black people are violent and demanding.” The video was pure propaganda furthering the oldest and most vile racist idea in history – that somehow the ills, violence, unemployment, crime, and poverty that affect black and brown communities disproportionately in America are caused by black and brown people themselves.
I hammered out my response by email. Number 1! Who made this video? Number 2! There is no intelligent definition of “systemic racism” much less an actual analysis of it! Number 3! All people, no matter their color, can be racist! Number 4! Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington’s opinions are not “fact!” Number 5! Here’s all the evidence that points to a long, organized history of systemic racism in this country! Number 6! Promoting racist ideas like this video clearly does is a PART of systemic racism! Number 7! Who benefits from systemic racism? Who benefits from promoting racist ideas like these? Who made this video again???
Then I sat back and let the steam evaporate a little. I didn’t press “send” yet. Something nagged at me. I did some exercise. I made dinner. I let things simmer.
I’ve been in arguments like the one above, often with my own family, since I was in high school. My family, while they generally support me, and agree with my social-work-informed view of the world, have grown tired of listening to me spout data, as well as personal experience to back up my opinions. I knew that my friend would dismiss my response in hand: “She’s a hopeless, bleeding-heart liberal that’s been bamboozled by the ‘far left,’ liberal media.” Kind of the same way I had watched this video and thought, “Wtf! How can such a kind man be so ignorant and blind to the truth of this country!”
And these are the hallmarks of political and policy debate right now: Anger, argument, complete distrust and dismissal of “facts,” no interest in listening respectfully and believing someone else’s personal experiences, and an almost complete reliance on psychologically manipulative media propaganda where origins, much less the motives, of this propaganda are so deeply obscured as to be undetectable.
Conservatives claim that everything, besides their proclamations, are “fake news,” “hoaxes,” and “conspiracies” to take away power from conservatives. Liberals claim that conservatives are “ignorant,” “uneducated,” and “morally inferior.” How effective these stereotypical labels are in dividing the masses. In sowing distrust, hatred, fear and a sense of threat from “the other.”
How passe. This has been done before. Can you think of some examples where fear of the “other” has been used to create mindless obedience? We aren’t using our own hearts, guts, and conversations with real people to determine the “truth” of what’s going on anymore. We are blindly loyal to our own little party, the one who tells us they know what’s going on and will protect us, so we can go back to putting our heads in the sand and drinking beer.
So I asked my friend, What do you personally gain and lose by believing that systemic racism doesn’t exist? Not what others tell you you’ll gain or lose, but your actual lived experience? I asked myself the same question.
Let’s get back to using our own hearts and our own minds to come to conclusions about the world and how we should be in it. Do you consider yourself a tolerant, compassionate person? Well, what does that look like in real life? Does it look like dismissing a black person’s lived experience of being pulled over by the police, forced to get down on your knees with your hands in the air and guns pulled at your head because you may or may not have been wearing your seatbelt? Does it look like saying, “he must’ve deserved that, he must’ve provoked the cops?” Or can you feel the fear and powerlessness that that black man must’ve felt and be outraged, scared and confused about how that can actually still happen in your community, right now?
Does it look like a fear of paying higher taxes to support Medicaid? When you actually look at your tax burden over the years, do you see yourself bleeding money to the government when Medicaid, or unemployment, or any other “safety net” programs are increased and funded? What’s actually true? Where does our tax money go? Are black and poor people really gobbling up taxpayer money right and left? What’s your actual experience? Not what political propaganda tells you, but your actual experience.
And what would you, personally, lose by, say, wearing a mask? How would this actually affect your day-to-day life? And how might it affect someone else’s? What does it say when you do or don’t wear a mask? Why has our health been politicized? Why has our care for each other been politicized?
For all the current issues in our world – racism, coronavirus, the economy, our health, our jobs, our taxes, and our relationships with the people around us, both like-minded AND DIFFERENT, let’s please trust our own hearts, and our own minds. Just stop Tweeting, just stop posting to FaceBook, just don’t watch YouTube, just don’t listen to the TV. Just talk to real people, all people, people different from you, with curiosity and respect. Ask yourself the question, “what am I personally going to gain or lose by doing ___________?" Actually think about that question, and seek your own facts and experiences. Live your values, don’t waste your energy arguing with others about them.