We are stuck

If all we ever do is all we’ve ever done, all we’ll ever have is what we’ve always had.

We’ve seen the video and pictures of former officer Derek Chauvin with his knee on George Floyd’s neck.

We’ve seen the videos and pictures of rioting, looting, burning.

Same old, same old.

I no more understand the rioting, looting and burning than I understand Chauvin’s actions.

What I do understand is we are stuck.

The cry’s for change are at crescendo level again, for now. They will slowly ebb away only to return once again when another instance of police brutality occurs. That’s the cycle. That’s the rut we are stuck in.

When complex problems present themselves the immediate impulse is often to treat symptoms of the problem. I think we saw that in initial responses to both the covid-19 virus and societal reactions to it.   Fortunately there are efforts afoot to uncover the root cause of the problem and solve that problem. I’m not at all sure there exists significant effort to discern the root cause of police brutality.

No, it is not racism. If it were racism there would not be instances of white suspects  being brutalized by white officers, but there are. There are also instances of black suspects being brutalized by black officers. Racism is simply the spark that brings recognition to the problem.  Riots, looting and burning a knee jerk reaction and at this point a conditioned response.

Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.

Yeah, that applies here as well. Rioting, looting and burning only serves to perpetuate the negative stereotype associated with those rioting. Everyone’s mind went to “blacks” as they read that last sentence and that is another issue of this complex problem for if we look at pictures and videos of these violent protests we see white people involved in rioting, looting and burning too.

Who’s to blame?  Ask a black and chances are high you will hear racists (whites) are to blame. The premise that racism is the sole purview of the Caucasian race is preposterous. In my own experience I have encountered racism from people of all races. There are certainly black racists among us.

Maybe we should ask, “what’s to blame”?  Hate.  That is the answer that makes sense and goes to the root cause of this problem. I am not ready to proclaim hate as the sole cause of this problem.  Fear certainly plays a role as well. And where does fear stem from? Differences.

Now, I think we are getting somewhere.

We are all uniquely different and should celebrate that fact, but differences can make us uncomfortable, fearful.  In a general sense we fear for our safety because differences equate to unpredictability. We don’t know what to expect. We find ourselves outside our comfort zone and so our defense mechanisms activate to protect us from this unknown threat.

There’s another key consideration - the unknown.  We fear the unknown. Once it becomes known we can move on to respect what we once feared.  That’s not to equate respect with love, rainbows and unicorns for danger can still be present in respect. It means what we once knew little about has become better known and an element of predictability attached to it. We may not like what is predictable, but we can learn from it and how to effectively deal with it. Managed response if you will.

Managed response implies a level of trust exists. Predictability. Anticipated behavior based on past experiences. Trust is the foundational element of all relationships. So, we need to invest time in getting to know one another?

Yes, in part, for if hate is the root cause of this problem, then the only remedy is Love.  And love cannot exist without Trust. The Bible tells us this as God’s mantra isn’t so much about Love as it is first about Trust. Over and over we find passages where we are asked and instructed to Trust in God. That is the invitation to invest in a relationship.  To discover and focus on our similarities as opposed to our differences.

How do we go from where we are now struck to a position of trusting one another.

There are emotional responses to fear. Nervousness chief among them. However, the same emotional response that trigger nervousness and fear also trigger excitement.  Have you ever noticed the thrill that can come from being frightened?  Yeah, so, if we were to concentrate on being excited about differences and recognizing them as opportunities instead of obstacles we might be onto something that could bring significant positive change to what sometimes seems a hopeless situation.

And now I’ve come full cycle as we are back to celebrating differences. Being excited about differences.  Seeing opportunities in differences rather than obstacles. And recognizing when we invest in one another it builds trust and can result in love developing and pushing out the hate.