Much of the anger we around us and in the world is displaced anger. To give an example, I was in NYC on my way to a protest and got in line to buy some food from street vendor. The person in front of me threw a fit at the vendor because the vendor did not fill his order correctly. The person who was throwing a fit interpreted the mistakes in the filling of the order as a sign of disrespect. The vendor was oriental and possibly had communication problems with this man. In throwing a fit, the man in front of me threw some of the food that the vendor was trying to sell out into the street. He then walked away still feeling enraged.
Now if I was a more consistent Christian, I would have paid for the food that the man threw away, but I didn't. It was more than obvious that the vendor didn't merit the tantrum thrown at him. And what was more than obvious is that the anger expressed at this vendor was really merited by others or by a system that made this man feel cheated and humiliated.
Did that man have a right to throw a tantrum and throw some of the vendor's food away without paying? No. But was his tantrum understandable? Such is a partial microcosm of the protests we are witnessing today.
We certainly cannot speak of the protests as a monolith. Some protests are peaceful and some of them even include police officers joining the protests. Such gives me joy to see and hope for the future.
Meanwhile, other protests are violent and destructive. However, even the violent protests are not a monolith. Why? Some of the violence and destruction was started by saboteurs who seek, what else than, to sabotage the protests. I saw the tail end of that when I was with Occupy in Washington D.C. A group of us, not including me, went to a designated place to protest. But among that group was a conservative activist who sabotaged the protest by shoving a security guard. The other guards reacted quickly by using some kind of pepper spray on the protesters. The one protester whom I saw was sprayed in the fact at point blank range. That person came back to the Occupy camp and it took this person more than 15 minutes to regain their sight. Later on we read about the conservative saboteur as they bragged about their accomplishment on the internet.
But what should we say about the violent and destructive actions of Black Americans during protests? Personally, I can neither condone nor condemn their violence. Not that I am for violent protests, I am not. I believe that the violence and destruction are morally wrong. But the anger that is coming out in that violence and destruction has been for centuries implanted by a nation that was founded on, and is still based on, white supremacy. And why I can't condemn their violence and destruction is because I have no way of understanding the legitimate anger, rage, and bitterness that many Blacks feel about America. I have no way of understanding it because I have not experienced life as many of them have. And it is wrong for me to judge them by assuming they had the same experiences growing up as an American as I did.
I could go on and describe what has justified their anger, rage, and bitterness, but that would be both self-serving and inadequate. Instead, I encourage anyone reading this blogpost to read and listen to Blacks talk or read what they write about their life experiences in this nation. Those of us who are white will still not understand because we don't have their life experiences. But listening and learning to our fellow humans who are Black might help us begin to correct the parts we play in our white supremacist nation.
To get the ball rolling, I suggest the latest opinion article written by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (click here for the article). Again, this article should be a starting point, not a one stop approach. It is by reading and listening to as many Blacks as we can that can give us whites a fuller picture of what life is like for them. We should note at the beginning that we will get a diverse stories from Black people as we seek to learn their history here.
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