An unarmed man was publicly executed by Minneapolis police on Monday, May 25, 2020. This comes in the middle of the panic of a growing economic depression, induced by a global pandemic, itself still growing in cases and deaths. And it's also still very controversial, given the world's political climate, and the difficult reality that all this orbits an election year. And this election also happens spotlight a narcissistic president known for threatening the press, first amendment rights, and Democratic state Governors, more than he is even willing to offer aid for those suffering from this entire current Covid-19 pandemic crisis.
And in the middle of all that, by now, everyone knows the name of George Floyd, the man of color who was killed this past Monday, and the name of his murderer, former officer Derek Chauvin.
What happened was wrong. Everyone knows that. Chauvin, the cop who did this will not be able to hide from justice, no matter where he tries. He has already been convicted of third degree murder. And the wave of angry people is way too large for him or the cops involved to ever outrun. Myself, I stand with those protesters, as best as I can as a single mom, with my children home. Lets move the to convict Chauvin at the first degree. Demand justice.
The riots are even larger than the president can outrun, as protesters now march on the White House, after two days of looting and destruction levied on Minneapolis. But that make this all very dangerous as well, with his power and his penchant for threats.
And so you can--and for real, we must--also make the argument that what happened is wrong even without race, no matter how much many of us may want to make that argument because we believe it will somehow protect others.
Floyd's skin color may have been a factor for this person's hate and murderous intent--it seems undoubtedly so--but that is not the largest rational reason why this is wrong. It is an individual intent, an individual prejudice, and an individual wrong. There are so many worse, overarching wrongs in the implications here, of our executive branch's abuse of power.
Floyd's skin color may have been a factor for this person's hate and murderous intent--it seems undoubtedly so--but that is not the largest rational reason why this is wrong. It is an individual intent, an individual prejudice, and an individual wrong. There are so many worse, overarching wrongs in the implications here, of our executive branch's abuse of power.
And we must realize these wrongs have nothing to do with the concept of race, apart from it's use by that same government, as centuries-long propaganda. We live in a country where the government itself has perpetuated that fallacy, and in turn the violence directly feeding on that very fallacy of race.
How? Ask any biologist. Race is only a social construct. There is no real biological basis for it.
How? Ask any biologist. Race is only a social construct. There is no real biological basis for it.
"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire
So if you are angry because you feel like you are a part of the same race as this poor man, George Floyd, I get that--I feel that--but check that anger for a moment, and make a better argument for yourself, I beg you. I guarantee you, even if your skin pigment is exactly his same color, you have various other shades of humanity in your genetics... Don't play into the very thing that is harming you. The very thing feeding into all the prejudice: the belief in race.
Instead, make people stop using the terms "race" and "racism" to describe people altogether... because those terms are exactly the same thing. Believing in race is racism. And that is clearly the fault of the government, that we have allowed ourselves to feed into.
But none of that information makes what happened any less wrong.
This was wrong for many reasons. But the three biggest reasons why this was wrong are because:
- It is wrong for the government to have segregated people and perpetuated the lie of race for centuries. It is an absurdity, which we have allowed ourselves to believe, which has inspired many to commit atrocities, as the philosopher Voltaire once warned we would.
- This most current atrocity is wrong because no citizen should be afraid that their executive branch of government will decide to enact a public execution upon an unarmed man without judge and jury. Anything else is a government that is out of control, which we must demand better of.
- Murder is wrong. And this was clearly murder.
I lately refuse to call people racist, not because I don't feel for those who identify with others who have been unjustly killed or harmed, especially if it involved some physical prejudice. I am part of a minority group and a victim of violence myself. But I refuse to even acknowledge race and racism anymore, because I have seen every atrocity is wrong for much worse reasons, and that belief in a lie, only gives it more power to harm. It only further perpetuates the myth by which people have built prejudices.
There is a meme going around perhaps you have seen. On one side it shows Derek Chauvin kneeing a grounded and defenseless George Floyd in the back of the neck, while the other shows the practice of football quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, taking to his knee, to send Americans the message that black lives matter. The text at the top reads, "This... is why." And the meme truly makes a powerful impact. I feel the pain of it and why many want to make this message hit home. 
So I completely do not have a problem with Kaepernick's ritual or beliefs. Kaepernick's kneeling, to me, is meaningful, despite a more rational outlook that may come off as dismissive. Let's get that out first.
But perhaps as I brought up the meme, some of what I said before kind of stood in contrast to it, and maybe you felt that too. Perhaps some of what I have already written helps people understand why some people do have their issues. Maybe the path is lit up that illuminates why some don't understand, or are still upset by Kaepernick's kneeling in protest of his own subjective, government lie-founded bias, perpetuating lie-based tension, and perpetuating the very lie itself... In addition to also being furious at the murderous kneel of Derek Chauvin into George Floyd's vulnerable, clearly lacking resistance, breathing passageway. If you're still not sure why people could feel varying levels of upset for both pictures, I still have a little more to help us start a conversation.
Not everyone knows how to express their feelings, and lay them out rationally. But rationality and truth are the most important things to dig out of these events. They are the only way to solve the problems.
Another thing I saw, just this Friday, was a CNN reporter, Omar Jimenez, and his crew, being arrested in the middle of a report on live television. He was released later in the day, and I have included the follow-up video here.
First of all, I think Jimenez is one of the most amazing reporters I have ever seen, in his professionalism handling the entire situation. And despite what clearly happened, despite how easy it would have been to feed into everything going on right now... he didn't use the word "race" even once. Not while he was arrested, and not in his follow-up. He could have. But he presented the facts and the team makes an argument based on things that are concerning regardless of appearances or social construct.
And Jimenez's reaction makes significant impact: You have several opportunities to understand how unprecedented and monumentally upsetting this situation was, because clearly the color of his skin was likely a factor, and the arrest certainly seems to have been made in prejudice, considering there was another reporter, Josh Campbell, reporting on just the other side of the block, but that predjudice is never specifically mentioned. So you do see a wider, humanity-inspired picture of what was shocking and worrisome here, before any sweeping identity-inspired accusations are made.
The real, universal problem was the police arresting a member of the press, seemingly joining our President's recent move in an executive order against social media giant Twitter. Trump was big, the police's move was smaller, but unprecedented in this country. And both were subverting First Amendment freedoms, without any warrant or explanation. The officers say they were just "following orders". We should all be able to understand how dangerous this is to anyone's ability to speak openly, no matter the color of your skin.
Was there prejudice as well? Yes. But, as I said, recently I've made it my personal mission to never assign myself or anyone else a race again. Our race is human. Our love for each other and life should be what motivates us, not our differences.
Now, I need you to know I will try not to loose you... But I want to talk about some simple physics. And more directly, I want to talk a little about force.
In physics, we describe forces as vectors. And force vectors can be weaker, or stronger, but go in different directions, those being north, south, east, and west; in varying degrees.
How does this matter, and why do I bring any of this physics stuff up at all?
Well, remember that location and direction are relative ideas, each relative to each other actually. Direction is relative to what planet you may be living on, or what your reality is. Even on earth, it is relative to our magnetic polarity, which may change at some point within the next few thousand years... So while we don't notice it, locations and directions are all relative. And maybe we can take a moment to virtualize this reality. Maybe how physicists and engineers interpret direction and force on our planet can parallel how we tend to see our cultural landscape and the forces within it.
And maybe we can replace directions with an aspect of social relativism: with specifically the social construct of "race".
This is going to be a tougher concept to understand without some comprehension of physics or trigonometry, but lets work through it.
Any force that is graphed--remember graphing lines and triangles in high school math?--A force can be graphed like that, as a line with a single direction, and that's what we call a vector. And vectors have the same magnitude, or the same amount of force, no matter which direction it goes. But a vector going in one direction will effect any system, or in this case, any culture, that it is a part of. And all systems always eventually find a point of equilibrium, even if a force causes that system to collapse, it eventually finds that equilibrium in settling--in pieces--in the rubble that is left behind...
Hopefully we can all start out by agreeing that we don't want to find equilibrium in our society that way. But a force can only be opposed by another vector going in the opposite direction. Meaning the "force"--or actions--of one "direction"--or in this case, the actions of a perceived "race"--must be opposed in the same amount by an opposite "race". It can also be opposed by several different similar "races", all adding up to the same total whole amount of opposition. But if the forces of each race do not work against each other on their own, the culture will not be able to maintain equilibrium, and must introduce government change and policy--like we have already seen fail for centuries--or simply fall apart.
The other option is moral or ethical change. And the simplest way to do that and fix this whole issue, to which there is no sure answer to how much violence and destruction our society will go through in order to find its equilibrium, is to not to do what we have just done here. Not do what the United States has been doing since it's founding. We need to not virtualize the force of our separate identities into relative "races". Otherwise we are facing an uncertain future, considering that other "races" and identity groups may ally for a time, but are not subjectively all in agreement or facing the same direction. And there is always, most pressing, the majority identity group--or status quo--possessing such magnitude that it will likely crush anything that ends up in its way--even if unmeaning--to find equilibrium, should the system allow it to fall, rather than gently lower with gradual change.
This isn't "racism". This is how any system works. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed. And technically, there are not any truly separate races. We are all human. If we remember that first, and stop perpetuating the race myth which even our government has played into over the centuries, the changes we need to happen will gradually happen on their own. The status quo will gradually change as populations expand and we all just live with each other's presence, as humans only and nothing more.
And the violence will be brought to justice if we all understand the universal wrongs, and call them out, no matter where they occurs, or who is the victim.
So again, George Floyd deserved justice, and we citizens as well as our government need to recognize a need for change in the wake of his death. But moving beyond the rhetoric of racism and beyond the allusion of race, we need to maintain our freedoms and reign in police brutality and the totalitarian nature of departments across the nation.
I have discovered I am an anarchist at heart. It is always my first position, even if rationally, I know better. And as a mother, I have both learned to also look out for this in myself, because it is such a rash place to start from, and also to use that fire to defend my children while they still remain small and ignorant of how teachers and school administration have treated them, especially in the presence of only the other hispanic parent. And I've taken on that cultural heritage myself, because they come from me, and this is such tightrope to walk.
My first reaction to to seeing the video of George Floyd being slowly and helplessly murdered by police was to wonder why no one seemed to run for help. Then again, how could you leave the side of an innocent dying man? But my first thought was to see myself there. If I had come upon this scene, or if I had even been one of his friends, my immediate first instinct would be to to expose what was going on to anyone who could have immediately stepped in. I thought, maybe I'd even start at the closest arms dealer--if I could find one--but either way I'd go shop to shop telling everyone where to find the cops that are carrying out a public execution on an unarmed black man. Or I'd take a live public video with the address, with restaurants and stores tagged. Riot right then and there, immediately, and not just the day afterwards. Maybe he wouldn't have died.
Those were my first thoughts. What happened was so very wrong. Chauvin at least definitely knew what he was doing! And Floyd's friends had no one there to help.They just had to watch and plead. And I'm sure it was so much more horrible for them, than it was for me.
I posted these feelings on my personal social media, and then made them private not too long after, because I felt so upset and I was worried I was saying something that wouldn't at all help, and just make things worse. And it ended with the feeling that none of us should have to, but it's becoming clearer and clearer that we need to think ahead and know the right words and actions to use against out of control government in the moment. We need to find a ways to flip the script and take control, in an instant.
But after a lot of thought, taking back control is something that requires real, pointed rational messages. In labeling Floyd or anyone else as a black man, who was unarmed, innocent, but publicly executed by police--I don't think "black" changes the seriousness of that message at all. And in the wake of this, I have seen videos and accounts spring up of this happening to all sorts of people. Although, clearly the statistics spike for those who do have a darker skin color.
And now I've spent the last few hundred words describing why I believe labeling people for those characteristics only encourages more conflict and more atrocities. I don't believe in making this a black lives matter anymore, although those lives do matter. I think we probably all agree this is a human matter. But it has to be presented as a human matter. Because no matter who is facing the problems, the solutions can be found and employed and taught by any member of our species. And the hate can so easily be turned on any of those solutions based on any arbitrary imagined allegiance we can dream up. When we are so reliant on a social construct in our society, so many things can be misinterpreted, and so much hate reinvigorates itself. So I will not ever assign myself or anyone else a race again. Not on legal documents, not in my speech.
Again, our race is human. Again, our love for each other and life in general should be what motivates us to action, not our differences. And this has been such a horrible, difficult week for those values, which is why we need to remember our love for them, and for each other and for life, conversation, and cooperation.
And Jimenez's reaction makes significant impact: You have several opportunities to understand how unprecedented and monumentally upsetting this situation was, because clearly the color of his skin was likely a factor, and the arrest certainly seems to have been made in prejudice, considering there was another reporter, Josh Campbell, reporting on just the other side of the block, but that predjudice is never specifically mentioned. So you do see a wider, humanity-inspired picture of what was shocking and worrisome here, before any sweeping identity-inspired accusations are made.
The real, universal problem was the police arresting a member of the press, seemingly joining our President's recent move in an executive order against social media giant Twitter. Trump was big, the police's move was smaller, but unprecedented in this country. And both were subverting First Amendment freedoms, without any warrant or explanation. The officers say they were just "following orders". We should all be able to understand how dangerous this is to anyone's ability to speak openly, no matter the color of your skin.
Was there prejudice as well? Yes. But, as I said, recently I've made it my personal mission to never assign myself or anyone else a race again. Our race is human. Our love for each other and life should be what motivates us, not our differences.
Now, I need you to know I will try not to loose you... But I want to talk about some simple physics. And more directly, I want to talk a little about force.
In physics, we describe forces as vectors. And force vectors can be weaker, or stronger, but go in different directions, those being north, south, east, and west; in varying degrees.
How does this matter, and why do I bring any of this physics stuff up at all?
Well, remember that location and direction are relative ideas, each relative to each other actually. Direction is relative to what planet you may be living on, or what your reality is. Even on earth, it is relative to our magnetic polarity, which may change at some point within the next few thousand years... So while we don't notice it, locations and directions are all relative. And maybe we can take a moment to virtualize this reality. Maybe how physicists and engineers interpret direction and force on our planet can parallel how we tend to see our cultural landscape and the forces within it.
And maybe we can replace directions with an aspect of social relativism: with specifically the social construct of "race".
This is going to be a tougher concept to understand without some comprehension of physics or trigonometry, but lets work through it.
Any force that is graphed--remember graphing lines and triangles in high school math?--A force can be graphed like that, as a line with a single direction, and that's what we call a vector. And vectors have the same magnitude, or the same amount of force, no matter which direction it goes. But a vector going in one direction will effect any system, or in this case, any culture, that it is a part of. And all systems always eventually find a point of equilibrium, even if a force causes that system to collapse, it eventually finds that equilibrium in settling--in pieces--in the rubble that is left behind...Hopefully we can all start out by agreeing that we don't want to find equilibrium in our society that way. But a force can only be opposed by another vector going in the opposite direction. Meaning the "force"--or actions--of one "direction"--or in this case, the actions of a perceived "race"--must be opposed in the same amount by an opposite "race". It can also be opposed by several different similar "races", all adding up to the same total whole amount of opposition. But if the forces of each race do not work against each other on their own, the culture will not be able to maintain equilibrium, and must introduce government change and policy--like we have already seen fail for centuries--or simply fall apart.
The other option is moral or ethical change. And the simplest way to do that and fix this whole issue, to which there is no sure answer to how much violence and destruction our society will go through in order to find its equilibrium, is to not to do what we have just done here. Not do what the United States has been doing since it's founding. We need to not virtualize the force of our separate identities into relative "races". Otherwise we are facing an uncertain future, considering that other "races" and identity groups may ally for a time, but are not subjectively all in agreement or facing the same direction. And there is always, most pressing, the majority identity group--or status quo--possessing such magnitude that it will likely crush anything that ends up in its way--even if unmeaning--to find equilibrium, should the system allow it to fall, rather than gently lower with gradual change.
This isn't "racism". This is how any system works. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed. And technically, there are not any truly separate races. We are all human. If we remember that first, and stop perpetuating the race myth which even our government has played into over the centuries, the changes we need to happen will gradually happen on their own. The status quo will gradually change as populations expand and we all just live with each other's presence, as humans only and nothing more.
And the violence will be brought to justice if we all understand the universal wrongs, and call them out, no matter where they occurs, or who is the victim.
So again, George Floyd deserved justice, and we citizens as well as our government need to recognize a need for change in the wake of his death. But moving beyond the rhetoric of racism and beyond the allusion of race, we need to maintain our freedoms and reign in police brutality and the totalitarian nature of departments across the nation.
I have discovered I am an anarchist at heart. It is always my first position, even if rationally, I know better. And as a mother, I have both learned to also look out for this in myself, because it is such a rash place to start from, and also to use that fire to defend my children while they still remain small and ignorant of how teachers and school administration have treated them, especially in the presence of only the other hispanic parent. And I've taken on that cultural heritage myself, because they come from me, and this is such tightrope to walk.
My first reaction to to seeing the video of George Floyd being slowly and helplessly murdered by police was to wonder why no one seemed to run for help. Then again, how could you leave the side of an innocent dying man? But my first thought was to see myself there. If I had come upon this scene, or if I had even been one of his friends, my immediate first instinct would be to to expose what was going on to anyone who could have immediately stepped in. I thought, maybe I'd even start at the closest arms dealer--if I could find one--but either way I'd go shop to shop telling everyone where to find the cops that are carrying out a public execution on an unarmed black man. Or I'd take a live public video with the address, with restaurants and stores tagged. Riot right then and there, immediately, and not just the day afterwards. Maybe he wouldn't have died.
Those were my first thoughts. What happened was so very wrong. Chauvin at least definitely knew what he was doing! And Floyd's friends had no one there to help.They just had to watch and plead. And I'm sure it was so much more horrible for them, than it was for me.
I posted these feelings on my personal social media, and then made them private not too long after, because I felt so upset and I was worried I was saying something that wouldn't at all help, and just make things worse. And it ended with the feeling that none of us should have to, but it's becoming clearer and clearer that we need to think ahead and know the right words and actions to use against out of control government in the moment. We need to find a ways to flip the script and take control, in an instant.
But after a lot of thought, taking back control is something that requires real, pointed rational messages. In labeling Floyd or anyone else as a black man, who was unarmed, innocent, but publicly executed by police--I don't think "black" changes the seriousness of that message at all. And in the wake of this, I have seen videos and accounts spring up of this happening to all sorts of people. Although, clearly the statistics spike for those who do have a darker skin color.
And now I've spent the last few hundred words describing why I believe labeling people for those characteristics only encourages more conflict and more atrocities. I don't believe in making this a black lives matter anymore, although those lives do matter. I think we probably all agree this is a human matter. But it has to be presented as a human matter. Because no matter who is facing the problems, the solutions can be found and employed and taught by any member of our species. And the hate can so easily be turned on any of those solutions based on any arbitrary imagined allegiance we can dream up. When we are so reliant on a social construct in our society, so many things can be misinterpreted, and so much hate reinvigorates itself. So I will not ever assign myself or anyone else a race again. Not on legal documents, not in my speech.
Again, our race is human. Again, our love for each other and life in general should be what motivates us to action, not our differences. And this has been such a horrible, difficult week for those values, which is why we need to remember our love for them, and for each other and for life, conversation, and cooperation.