George Floyd is dead. After gasping, multiple times, those words we’ve heard before, “I can’t breathe,” he passed out, his neck mashed under the knee of a peace officer sworn to protect and serve.
I can barely breathe myself. And I have few words to add to the many being written in articles and blogs nationwide. Many of them are more eloquent than I. So in lieu of my pontificating, this week I am sharing the writings of two people.
Tim Wise, antiracism educator/author (who happens to be white), provides a powerfully thought-provoking and penetrating history on the role of violent protest in this country. His article is Violence Never Works…Really? Then he supplies a follow up question: How do you think this country came to be?
https://medium.com/@timjwise/violence-never-works-really-e0af884c03b4
Holiday Phillips is a British sociologist and writer. She is also my niece who gives me tremendous hope for the generations that follow mine.
Besides turning an unflinching eye toward the inequalities of the world, she searches her own soul to better live a life of integrity and activism. Here she provides some sobering suggestions for white allies who want to do more than like the latest hashtag and march in the next demonstration.
https://medium.com/@hello_82693/performative-allyship-is-deadly-c900645d9f1f
May they help you come to grips with the emotional chaos in which we are all immersed, and find a way forward, clear-eyed, and with grace and grit, purpose and power.
I’ll be back next week with another Dispatch.
