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| Mug shot of murder suspect, Derek Chaven (National Review) |
Is there any way former Minneapolis cop, Derek Chauvin can get a fair trial? If there is I’d like to know how. The grim video of Chauvin, a white cop murdering Geroge Floyd,a black suspect is pretty damning evidence. I have no doubt that a jury of his peers will correctly convict him of 2nddegree murder.
But how in heaven’s name can a jury be selected that is not aware of this video, or the massive black lives matter protests it generated? Protests that have been ongoing now for 3 weeks after that video was first seen by the public!
Is there anyone alive that has not seen it? Or is not aware of what it generated? Is even possible that a jury can convene that will assume Chuavin is innocent until proven guilty? I don’t think it’s possible. It may be true that justice will ultimately be served by finding him guilty. But it won’t be because of an impartial jury of his peers. Which is one of the bedrock principles of this country.
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| Confederate flag |
Now that I got that out of the way, there is another thing I have been thining about. The current obsession of ridding symbols of racism in this country. Like public displays of the Confederate flag and statues of Confederate generals. And changing the names of military bases – named for some of those generals
Black people want those things gone. And they are essentially right. I can’t imagine what it must be like to constantly see a flag that symbolizes the pro slavery South of the past.
The glorification via a statue of Robert E. Lee via who led a Confederate army that fought to retain slavery must be very hurtful to a black person. There are those who argue that Lee was not a slaveholder and was not personally racist. That his fight was only about states’ rights.
But it doesn’t matter. Lee knew which rights the Confederacy was fighting for and he should have refused to serve in that goal. No matter how he felt about his beloved home, Richmond. I had always wondered why history books were so kind to him because of that. It is time to stop giving honor to Lee and any other Confederate general. Letting these symbols stand is surely hurtful to black people whose ancestors were salves and horribly mistreated in the Antebellum South.
All existing statues of Confederate generals should be removed and put into a Civil War museum and placed in proper historic context without any glorification.
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| Statue of Robert E.Lee (NPR) |
To best understand how it feels to see statues of great generals that fought for an ignoble cause - imagine what it would be like for a Jew currently living in Germany to constantly see the statues of Nazi Germany’s generals. Even those that were not involved in the extermination of the Jewish people but were simply brilliant field generals that won many battles. Maybe they were not personally antisemitic. But that they had loyalty to the ‘Fatherland’ despite what was happening to Germany’s Jews. That shows an appalling lack of ethics and morality. Just as Lee should have refused to serve the Confederacy, so too should these German generals have refused to serve a country committing genocide. Paying tribute to them in any capacity is both wrong and hurtful.
I am somewhat conflicted, however about changing the names of army bases named for Confederate generals. Not because I want to glorify those generals. But because those military bases have a great legacy and are well known by those names.
The fact that hardly anyone knew they were named for Confederate generals - maybe we lose more than we gain by doing that? The legacy of a military base will be obscured once we change the name. I honestly don’t know whether the ‘cure’ is worse than the ‘disease’. This might just be a case of overkill. Or not. I don’t know.
As important removing those symbols are, it ought to be secondary to the real problem plaguing the black community. Their economic situation. No seems to be talking about that. Symbolism will not materially help a single a black family.
What will help them is more jobs. Until the pandemic that situation improved to the point of an unprecedentedly low unemployment rate. In the short term America needs to get that back. How we do that is the $64 question. But it needs to somehow be done.
In the long term, the educational paradigm ought to be expanded so that in addition to a much needed improvement in the academic side of the public schools system, there ought to be a vocational option for students and parents to choose from. A choice that can be achived via some sort of voucher program. The choice of an academic or a vocational school ought to be made available to all public school students. Not just those I the inner city.
Black entrepreneurship needs to be strengthened Black entrepreneurs need capital to invest in business ventures. Banks have been notoriously reluctant to lend black entrepreneurs who want to invest it black neighborhoods.
This has to be changed. And that kind of change can best happen if the police are strengthened. Not weakened. What makes bank reluctant to invest in inner city neighborhoods is the gang violence so rampant in them. Law enforcement needs to rid those neighborhoods of those gangs and the violence they bring to it.
The problem is that because of the racism inherent in some white cops and the unjustified deaths of so many black suspects because of it - it will be harder than ever to accomplish that. As I have said in the last, the only solution in my view is to implement national standards of color blind policing now being considered by congress. That will help to prevent racism of any kind to influence how cops treat black suspects. There must be a police force. Or the inner city gangs win. And black people living in them will continue to lose.
Even though this is all somewhat of a pipe dream, I think it is still the right dream if we are to live up to what America should and can be.