Recently I read an article that said, "The Dallas shootings were a wake-up call for America." There are many many things the shootings can (and have) been labeled as, but a wake-up call should not be one of them.
I'm not trying to romanticize it. This was the taking of innocent human lives during a racially charged frenzy. This was in response to the taking of another innocent life, but murder for murder can never be a solution. This wasn't a wake-up call because we've had wake-up calls before and this response is far beyond that.
We had a wake-up call when the Black Lives Matter movement began. When thousands of our fellow citizens gathered to protest the way they were being treated. That was a wake-up call.
When white people everywhere were forced to come face to face with their privilege (or choose to believe it didn't exist). That was a wake-up call.
A wake-up call came and was ignored every time a white person ignored the experience of their fellow human beings and wrote them off.
I am in no was saying that the murder of the policeman was right or justified or should have happened. But this was not a wake up call.
A wake-up call is jarring. It's surprising. This is no longer a shock. We're stuck in a cyclical torrent of hate and fear. We can't be surprised by this. If we are, it's simply due to our ignorance of the world. Of what people of color feel. Of what policemen, now more than ever, feel as they simply try to do their jobs.
These events are sad, but they are not surprising, and that only makes them more sad. What happened in Dallas is not a wake-up call, it's just something that happens in the world we've created. We've had our wake-up calls, ignored them, and so this is the world we've chosen to support and to live in.
The Dallas shooting is representative (as has been every protest, riot, and movement since the 1900's) of everything that will continue to happen if we choose to ignore minority voices. The deaths of these officers can never be justified, but we've created a community in which civil discourse and discussion is impossible. We've created a system with a wall so high between two opposing sides that falling on either gives you the label of "racist" or "cop hater." This is an impossible system to keep up without everything coming to a tragic, violent end.
Practice love, acceptance, and LISTEN. Don't refuse to listen just because you don't understand.
Then, and only then, can we make progress.
