Bearing Witness
The past few years have exposed many inequities and turmoil. We saw how people behaved at their worst and how they preserved at their best. The pandemic was a jolt to the system that has exposed a gaping and unrelenting schism between those who are comfortable and those who are and continue to be struggling. During this time, I and most everyone I know had the luxury of holing up in our homes. We ordered food to be delivered and sat on endless zoom meetings, but we did not bear the cost of this pandemic.
I wrote about the inequities of the vaccine rollout because I was outraged by the clear bias for tech solutions inherent in the execution of solutions. I wrote about it because it bothered me so much that our state which is usually at the cutting edge of progress in the USA was mired in what I call “blinder thinking.” Blinder thinking comes out of persons who are in and have always been in the comfortable class. Often well-meaning people are responsible for making and implementing solutions for people who do not personally know people outside of their socio-economic class. The only interaction they have with them is design thinking research to build “empathy” mainly for the privileged person’s benefit.
Much of my family lives in the Inland Empire, a more impoverished California region where the virus is still raging on. Unlike San Francisco, the North and South Bay, people down there as with many the East Bay, Central Valley, and rural Northern California work in blue-collar jobs. Jobs in distribution centers, manual labor, agriculture, and all the logistical things that make it possible for the people I know to have food, clothing, and the latest webcam delivered to their door. The well-heeled who have jobs in which they can stay at home do not have to put themselves at risk.
We say we don’t have a class system in the USA but that’s bullshit. We have people who get to live comfortable lives and we have the majority who toil and suffer to keep the few comfortable. It’s easy not to see it unless you pay attention. But I think it’s time we all took a good look at the horror. If there is anything, my practice has taught me that rings true, if you don’t accept and acknowledge suffering, you have no hope of addressing it to end the suffering.
We have an example of this playing out on the media right now. The trail of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who killed George Floyd. Expert after expert has testified Chauvin used excessive force, did not comply with police training, and had a history of violence. Our country has endured the injustice of acquitting violent, murderous men who do not deserve to be wearing police uniforms.
For the first time, I feel optimistic that justice will prevail, and he will be found guilty and go to prison where he belongs. And I want to be heard clearly — this is not about a lack of support for the police (I have lots of support and respect for them). The case of George Floyd is a more significant issue; it’s about ensuring that we finally, as a society, move in the direction of civility and accountability. No one should be above the law, and no one should be allowed to attack and murder someone and get away with it brutally.
I find the overuse of using video to shame and blame others ripe for misuse and understanding. Still, in the case of what happened to George Floyd (and Rodney King before him), the video had to happen for people to understand the severity of the wrong-doing.
Michael Moore made an excellent analogy to George Floyd's murder. The horrific murder of Emmett Till (for folks who don’t know who he was, his is a case of a 14-year-old kid, an innocent young boy, brutally lynched in a sickening, racist case that was unfortunately very common in the South back in the 1950s) Emmett Tills mother insisted on having his body laid out in an open casket and allowed photos to be taken by the press to show white people what their monsters had done to her little boy. Justice was not served in his case, but it did forever make lynching unacceptable because people saw the ghastly horror it is. Emmett's mother could not save him, but she could make sure his death was not in vain and ensure things would change. We need to have the horror shoved in our faces sometimes to stop the horror. I hope that finally, things will change. These horrible atrocities have to stop. We can’t live in a civil society when a significant portion of the population has legitimate and proven reasons to fear the entrusted people to serve and protect the community. And we can’t expect to be free to pursue happiness when so many of our brothers and sisters are suffering.
I believe a better, more just world is waiting for us. I hope that a guilty sentence is one of the first steps towards that place. There are so many wrongs in the world, but we have a chance to get something right. If we indeed are the home of the free — we need to do the work to make sure everyone is included in that promise.
I have to believe it’s possible, for the sake of your little ones and for the children my nieces and nephews will have someday.
