I’m Not Obligated to Pick a Side

I imagine most of my fellow Americans (and probably people around the globe) have been following our nation’s “conversation on race,” which has broiled into an argument between cops and protesters. I call it an argument because there’s no semblance of dialogue. From a social media perspective, people on both sides pour cherry-picked stories into my Facebook news feed, as if expecting everyone to cheer.

When I look at the protesters, I see historically oppressed groups struggling to find a voice. That voice, unfortunately, too often manifests itself as hopelessly revisionist history and even more hopelessly justified violence. Jesus wasn’t black (nor was he a European white) any more than Yasser Arafat or Khalil Gibran were black. The Ancient Egyptians weren’t black any more than modern Copts are, and neither were the ancestors of most American slaves Muslims. Despite these rather clear facts, I see friends of color grasping at straws, committing the same historical sins as my white brethren: adjusting the past with a few chops on the table of Procrustes. Dr. King’s words about rioting are twisted into a justification, as if it’s the most important line in a speech (let alone a life) filled with a commitment to non-violence.

The other side demonstrates little more refinement. All of a sudden every policeman’s death must be commemorated in social media, which, while noble in purpose, is clearly a rhetorical provocation. Eric Garner and Michael Brown’s cases remain undifferentiated; few remember that one involves a videotape while the other amounts to mere hearsay. People justify killings by labeling these men “criminals,” writing them off as if Christ himself weren’t crucified on trumped-up charges.

There is nothing less Christian.

Why write about this now? Admittedly, I’m late to the discussion (a tactful decision, I hope). I don’t believe that “white silence is white consent” any more than I think that silence during sex is consent. What can a man say when both sides shame his heritage and his nation, his religion and his history? Well, just the other day cops at Officer Rafael Ramos’s funeral turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio. Regardless of de Blasio’s politics or persona, my fellow Americans have already wrought enough division; our men and women in blue need create no more.

This episode hits particularly close to home because I live in New Jersey. I go to “the City” all the time. In fact, I’m leaving for Manhattan as soon as I finish writing this piece. I would expect this behavior of untrained protesters, but not of my city’s Finest. The point here isn’t strictly polemical; I can’t pick a winner, and I don’t think justice resides with one side entirely. I simply hope to raise the voice of a silent majority: those of us who have seen enough division, enough sadness, those who hope for hope, who remember with Jacques Ellul that “Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve.”