- Sam White
Dear White People: We Do Not Live in a ‘Broken’ America, We Live in a Perfectly Designed America.
Minneapolis is burning. America is watching. Are you listening?
People are fed up. Black people are fed up — and they have every right to be. Their kin are being slain in the streets like farm animals by people in a system that’s supposed to be there to protect us. They are scared for their lives. They don’t have the same rights white people do and that’s been made clear time and time again: Sandra Bland. Alton Sterling. Tamir Rice. Philando Castile. Eric Garner. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. The list goes on. Do you really wonder why they’re angry?
They’re angry because they can’t walk in public places without being profiled. They’re angry because they can’t be treated with decency at the hands of the police. They’re angry because existing while black is considered a crime. They’re angry because when a white man goes on a shooting spree they bring him to Burger King but when a black man is involved in a traffic infraction they execute him. They’re angry because when rich white Americans commit crimes it’s called business but when black Americans commit crimes its called malevolent.
They are angry because this system was designed to be this way. The system isn’t broken — it’s working exactly how it’s supposed to.
The term systematic racism wasn't just made up out of thin air. The ‘systematic’ part is what we are seeing spur this action right now; and it’s what many white people have failed to previously recognize because they’ve never had to live in a system rigged against the color of their skin.
This system was built on the flayed bodies of black slaves. This system was designed from the very beginning to keep the impoverished in poverty; it was designed for people to fail. The poor are never supposed to get rich. The disenfranchised are never supposed to find equity. The discriminated against are never supposed to find solidarity.
This racist system is now spearheaded by Donald J. Trump who is stoking the flames of divisiveness and violence with each and every tweet he sends. You have to realize that the system has been dying for a President like him — one that accurately represents everything the system has ever stood for, and one that brings to light everything the system has tried to hide. Donald Trump is the bootlicker’s wet dream. He is what satiates the rabid, foaming mouths of racists lying in wait, ready to pounce on their chance to expose themselves with pride. He is their fucking totem.
These people are not just burning a city — they are burning a system that has kept them oppressed for over 400 years. They are burning the ideals that their lives aren’t worth the same as their white counterparts. There is hopelessness, devastation, anger, and unfathomable pain in those flames. We must let them burn.
This country has had its knee on the necks of African Americans for hundreds of years. This is bigger than a couple of stores. This is bigger than Target, and Autozone, and abandoned buildings. This is black people’s right to live.
Peaceful protests have not worked. Peaceful movements have not worked. Peaceful conversations have not worked. The U.S. government, our military, the police, the entire system knows one language and one language alone: violence. It’s time we spoke it back.
Minneapolis is burning. America is watching. Are you listening?
If you want to help aid the protesters on the front lines, please donate what you can to protesters on the ground at the Minnesota Freedom Fund or the medics on the ground at the Northstar Health Collective.