Justice and Humanity

I’m angry about the way our society values the lives of black men. It’s not only an issue of police brutality and racial profiling. Our culture portrays black men as a threat and that perception seeps into our subconscious. I know it does for me.

All Americans, but especially we as white people need to recognize our own unintentional prejudices. We can’t keep on resting on our personal relationships with black people to absolve us our responsibility to confront our own prejudices. The question should not be: how do we treat our black friends or family, but how do we view the black stranger on the street?

If we view the black stranger with anything less than the full humanity in which we view others, then we must acknowledge that fact and vow to change. I acknowledge it and I vow to change. Our disregard for black men’s lives is a societal issue, but we must do better as individuals. Amadou Diallo, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and many others are gone, but the lives of countless other black men depend upon our self-analysis.