The America We Deserve: Overcoming the Malignancy of Racism

The tragic events of the last few days are forcing America to confront its legacy of racism and inequality. In Louisiana, unarmed Alton Sterling was fatally shot while being held to the ground by two police officers. Less than 48 hours later, in Minnesota, 32 year-old Philando Castile was shot several times by a police officer who had stopped him because of a broken tail light. His girlfriend live-streamed the aftermath on Facebook as she calmly pleaded with the officer while Philando bled to death. In two days, two innocent black men were egregiously killed by law enforcement officers. To put this in perspective, approximately three individuals are killed by police officers every single day.

People are angry. But for every instance of police brutality against minority communities, there are instances of police officers and civilians working together to fix these troubling societal issues. On July 7th, 5 officers were killed and 7 others were wounded defending Black Lives Matter demonstrators. We cannot understate the sacrifices these officers made for the safety of peaceful demonstrators--no one should be the victim of hate-inspired violence.

Now more than ever we must all engage with law enforcement in our communities. Isolating ourselves will not change the larger societal issues we’re facing. For example, we’ve seen that meeting Muslims increases positive perceptions of the American Muslim community. If local police and community members meet, interact and engage in dialogue for solutions, perhaps we can become humans to each other again.

This change won’t be easy. If it were, 136 African Americans and 53 police officers wouldn’t have died this year for trying to make society better and safer for all, regardless of skin color. People are working for change through various avenues. In fact, President Obama and the Department of Justice recently announced new department-wide implicit bias training for law enforcement agents and prosecutors. This was done, in part, due to the work coming out of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

The only way to move forward is to maintain respect of and appreciation for law enforcement while pushing for reform that will raise their professional standards. Law enforcement should be a force for peace and stability, not one inciting violence. When murder of innocents is done with impunity, when we lose confidence in a criminal justice system, when more police officers are viewed with suspicion and enmity rather than as partners, we have succumbed to the malignancy of racism.

As President Obama said, “Let’s come together as a nation, and keep faith with one another, in order to ensure a future where all of our children know that their lives matter."

We cannot afford to exacerbate racial tensions and sit idly by or others will exploit this situation and create more of a racial divide in our country. Our efforts must be to counter the virulent whisper of racism and promote solutions for police and communities to build trust. Our national conscience demands that we do better.