According to Bernice King, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s daughter, “If you’re unbothered or mildly bothered by the first knee (on George Floyd’s death), but outraged by the second knee (Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling on the football field), then, in my father’s words, you’re ‘more devoted to order than to justice.’ And more passionate about an anthem that supposedly symbolizes freedom than you are about a black man’s freedom to live.”
Greenfield resident David Lakes organized Thursday and Friday Black Lives Matter protests in Greenfield that brought hundreds to the county courthouse. Most of the protesters were white. They held hand-made signs saying, “God sees your indifference” and “The time is always right to do what is right (MLK).”
But against the backdrop for these citizens in mourning for George Floyd, the black man who couldn’t breathe under the weight of a white Minneapolis police officer’s knee, was a tiny group of people holding signs saying, “#back the blue” on the other side of the street.
Compelled, I crossed the National Road to hear their point of view. I wanted to know why they were standing on a small corner of real estate opposing the sea of the righteously outraged. Why did they seem to be opposing those who have had enough of racial injustice in the form of police brutality against unarmed black men and women?
One answer was especially poignant: these protesters are being served by police officers to protect their right to protest. “We’re all family of someone who is a cop… My dad was a good cop.” On further discussion, they told me they are for Black Lives Matter. They want unity, but they felt compelled to stand with the blue. They didn’t want the good cops to be besmirched with the bad.
I asked if they would consider holding signs showing the totality of their viewpoint, of their solidarity with Black Lives Matter. They expressed their concern for their safety if they crossed the street to collect such a sign. One woman said she’d had a death threat.
I re-traced my steps seeking BLM protesters to engage with the “#back the blue” counter-protesters in a conversation. In spite of the shade thrown my way, I found some who were willing to do so. We walked back to the other side of the National Road.
What followed was a meeting of the minds, a show of respect from one to the other, a spark of connectivity. Lakes made space for black Greenfield residents to speak at the Friday gathering. Greenfield police and Hancock County law enforcement agreed to participate in a conversation. Hopefully, other community leaders will join in.
Let us grieve, let us protest, let us demand change. But let us also listen, breach the divide, and hold in our minds the thought you can at once be for the blue and also for Black Lives Matter. One doesn’t have to cancel out the other.
Likewise, let us understand all lives matter and to support Black Lives Matter is not to suggest they don’t. But BLM is the story of our time. It demands telling NOW. According to the Rev. Al Sharpton at George Floyd’s eulogy, “time’s up.” Mass incarceration, the dehumanization of an entire race through neglect, underinvestment, implicit bias/racism/prejudice (pick your poison) — time’s up.
Time’s up for silence while injustice is played out right in front of you, white America. Time’s up for denying the inconvenient truth that racism is alive and well. Time’s up for complacency, ignorance, callousness. Support the police — the good ones — but demand better of a system that brutalizes an entire people, where blacks are arrested for being black. In fact, demand a better system.
And because it bears repeating, “The time is always right to do what is right.” Amen.
Donna Steele is a civic leader who advocates for informed citizen participation, transparent representation, and government accountability. Send comments to [email protected].
