What the hell is happening?

It’s been a while since the last time I posted anything here.  Lots of things have happened that were worthy of reflection and commentary ... and thank goodness there are wiser folks than I who’ve kept up that work!  Still, as the Walrus famously said, “the time has come [...] to talk of many things.”

The big news recently has been the rioting, the violence and the destruction, taking place in Minneapolis in the aftermath of the death murder of George Floyd an African American on Monday evening.  (I know that there are those who will take exception to my referring to Mr. Floyd’s death as “murder” instead of simply a “death.”  I’ll get back to that in a minute.)

The apparently bigger news this morning, is that yesterday during a live segment on CNN the reporter Omar Jimenez was arrested along with the segment’s producer and camera operator.  A reporter arrested — live, on-air — while doing his job.

People are rightfully outraged by this brazen disregard of the fundamental Constitutional principle of a free press.

It’s important, though, that we don’t lose sight of what’s at the heart of this, and that’s more than the specific triggering event — the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department.  And I use the word “murder” intentionally, in part because I know that it’s provocative and I believe deeply that this is a time crying out for people to be provoked out of their complacency.  I also use the word because, whatever the “objective facts” surrounding this individual event, it didn’t happen in a vacuum.  It was not an isolated incident.  It occurred within a larger context:

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, Aura Rain Rosser, Tanisha Anderson, Roshad McIntosh, Darrien Hunt, Ezell Ford, Omar Abrego,  Kajieme Powell, Vonderitt D. Meyers, Jr., John Crawford III, Cary Ball Jr., Eleanor Bumpurs, Michael Stewart, Eula Love, Amadu Diallo, Oscar Grant, Patrick Dorismond, Malice Green, Tyisha Miller, Sean Bell, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Margaret LaVerne Mitchell ... 

Yesterday The New Yorker published an article written by staff writer Jelani Cobb, titled, “The Death of George Floyd in Context.”  It is not only worth the time it takes to read, it should be considered essential reading.  [Especially by white folks like me.]. Without it, the response(s) we’re seeing today won’t — don’t, can’t — make sense. [Especially to white folks like me.]

Pax tecum,

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