On George Floyd and Others

by Septimus Barrock

I was playing my guitar and singing a song while looking at the aftermath of the brutal murder of George Floyd and reflecting on Ahmaud Arbery’s hunting and killing, among others, when tears began to roll down my cheek. I consider myself a tough and emotionally-well-constituted individual, but I could not help succumbing to this poignant moment of vulnerability.

What I experienced is common in the course of the daily lived experiences of black people in America. We cry both outside and inside, but white people appear to be oblivious to this. Do you get the sense, like me, that white police officers do not consider black men as fully human? White seeming acquiescence in these circumstances is a hard thing to contemplate, but that’s because it may be an accurate or near-accurate assessment of the situation.

The following is an expose of where my thoughts led. You see us as a threat. I wonder why. We see you as a demon-possessed member of the human species. I wonder why. For four hundred years we have borne the cross of your oppression, segregation, and false self-attribution of racial superiority. With your repeated murderous, predation upon us we still continue to rise.

You give unconscious endorsement to our strength of character by suggesting we should remain calm in the face of your explicit and implicit inhumane and inhuman treatment of us. The fact that we are still here and will continue to be here without posing the same level of threat to you is indicative of a group of people whose consciousness is high above yours.

When Jesus talks about the first being last and the last being first, he was making reference to the diabolism that keeps you forcefully subjugating others under you so that you and your loved ones could reap all the benefits of this life often at the expense of everyone else. I hope you know that by creating these unfair advantages for yourself to the exclusion of everyone else you are not doing God’s work. What you are doing is setting up yourself and your children to reap the damnation that your diabolical investment is predestined to yield? Are you prepared to bear your cross for the next four-hundred years? Do you have the strength of character to do this? Do you have the moral fortitude to sustain this? This is not a judgement you can escape! Everything you have done and continue to do is the input you have been making to your own future suffering. No! We will not bear this cross alone! But you can assuage some of this by atoning for your sins.

It is the humanity in me that allows me to care about you even when I have been a victim of the inhumanity in you. You have done a good job evangelizing black people into the belief that we should turn the other cheek, and due to your insatiable and sadistic desire to repeatedly strike us on our cheeks, this has led to the unintended consequence of the hardening of our cheeks. This is a positive for us and a negative for you because it will lead you to discover that your futile acts do not have the moral support of either God or decent man.

My white brothers and sisters you have gone too far! When the police rain terror and murder upon black men and you remain silent you have gone too far! When you are a white woman in a verbal altercation with a black man and you file a false police report you have gone too far! When you deprive black Americans of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness through systemic racism you have gone too far! When you engage in mass incarceration of non-white residents you have gone too far! When you elect a white supremacist as president you have gone too far! When you allow white vigilantism to fester you have gone too far!

Here are some suggestions made in love for you: Come out and vociferously voice your objections to the maladies outlined above. Put yourself in the place of the black victims of police murder. Consider that your ascendency in life is not only due to your ability to perform, but also to the privileges you enjoy due to your whiteness and the access you have as a result of this.

Most of all empathize! I am encouraged by the number of young white people who seem to have a sense that things are not right in this society and choose to demonstrate against this state of affairs. If you are a white racist, don’t be surprised when your teenage white daughter decides to date a black man and have his baby or your wife leaves you for a black man. When moral consciousness grows, the pursuit of moral virtues flows and depravity suffers nightmares.

But, once again, you, my white friend, have made the type of immoral investment that will bring you mental confusion. When you have psychological clarity about these matters, you will understand that this is a necessary step in your journey into your next four centuries. Fortunately for you, there isn’t likely to be anyone diabolical enough to enslave you. You have done a thorough job psychologically enslaving yourselves. When you build a racist wall, ‘a big beautiful wall’, between you and others, you wall others out, but you wall yourself in restricting their freedom of movement and also yours. This is the perspective of a tired, caring black man. Consider it and be wise.

sbarrock@yahoo.com