Over the course of the last two weeks, I have seen and heard many different things. I’ve seen peaceful protests, violent riots, looting, arson. I’ve heard speeches, platitudes, clichés, chants, name calling.
The one thing I have not heard through all of the extensive news coverage is a solution. No one has offered one legitimate solution to this problem. Yelling “white privilege” is not a solution. Calling someone a “racist” is not a solution. Defunding law enforcement is not a solution. Blowing up the system is not a solution. Forcing white people to kneel down to black people is not a solution. White people washing black people’s feet is not a solution. Where are the real solutions? Maybe I have missed it, but I have not heard one solution.
The reason why there are no solutions offered because there are none. Racism is a subset of a bigger human problem, evil. Racism is evil. The human race has been fighting evil since the dawn of history. Has anyone in the last ten thousand years come up with a solution to systematically eradicate evil from the human race?
Derek Chauvin is evil. The man who fired 6 bullets into the woman who lives down the street from me the day George Floyd was killed is evil. Does anyone believe that Derek Chauvin was a saint of a person to other people? He is not a good person who became evil because of the implicit racism in society. Derek Chauvin is an evil socio-path who used race to express his evil.
Over 90% of murders are intra-racial. So, most of the evil that humans inflict upon other humans has nothing to do with race. People who kill are evil, and evil will find a way to manifest itself. Evil will always find its target, and if it can’t find a target, it will create one, usually for the most arbitrary superficial reasons. Evil is in every race. Evil does not discriminate. If you are filled with hate, you will hate. If you’re filled with love, you will love.
The rioters were not out there burning buildings, looting stores, and committing acts of violence to get justice for George Floyd. They used George Floyd’s death as an excuse to do what is in their heart, just as Derek Chauvin used George Floyd’s race as an excuse to do what was in his heart.
I am not trying to diminish racism. I am trying to get to the root cause of racism, and that is evil which infects society in many different forms and ways.
The child molester is evil. The rapist is evil. The drug dealer is evil. The armed robber is evil. The drive by shooter is evil. These manifestations of evil were not caused by racism or a racist system. The perpetrators and victims of evil transcend race. So, to think if we just to eliminate racism, all of our problems will be solved is delusional, because evil will still walk among us, looking for its opening, looking for its target.
We have addressed institutional racism and discrimination for the last 50+ years. We have struck down Jim Crow laws, separate but equal. There have been landmark Supreme Court decisions, such as Brown v Board of Education, Bailey v Patterson, Loving v Virginia, Jones vs Mayer Co, which have rooted out systemic racism and discrimination. We’ve passed Civil Rights legislation making it illegal to discriminate based on race, gender, religion, lifestyle, etc. in hiring, lending, college admissions, etc. We have eradicated the racism and discrimination built into our laws.
The racism and discrimination that rears its ugly head today is individual, not institutional. And that is a very important distinction. No one is defending what Derek Chauvin did, no one. He and his actions have been universally denounced, so why is everyone acting like people and the system are defending him?
When individuals violate laws, that is a problem with the individual, not the law or the system. The individual must be dealt with and punished. The law or the system doesn’t need to change. Derek Chauvin’s actions are an outgrowth of the evil and hate inside of himself, not evil and hate baked into the system. There are laws against what he did. And if there were past violations, he committed that were not addressed, the people responsible for holding him accountable need to be held equally accountable for his actions.
Blowing up the system, dismantling law enforcement will only create more pain, misery and injustice because it will create an opportunity, a fertile environment for evil and hate to grow, and express themselves without a system of accountability. Evil and hate flourish in chaos. They hate law and order. That is why they want to destroy it, and if they can’t destroy it, they want to commandeer it for their own purposes.
There has been a demand for justice for George Floyd. All four cops at the scene of his death are behind bars with upwards of $1.25 million in bail, and they all are looking at lengthy prison sentences. This is the only and best systematic solution we have to prevent the evil we witnessed on the streets of Minneapolis from manifesting itself again. But the only true solution to evil is love, but far too often these days, we have allowed the evil among us to stir up hate inside of us instead of allowing our shared need for love to heal us.