The Protests Are Not About Police Violence

“Racism and racial inequality are barriers for many non-whites, but viewing these disparities as a morality play between powerful whites and enraged minorities is a recipe for untold conflict.”

Waves of riots and protests swept across the nation in response to the death of George Floyd at the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin—the most horrific in a string of viral incidents involving gross injustices against black Americans. While the political, social, and cultural outcomes of the upheavals hang in the balance, two separate narratives seem to be emerging as to their meaning.

The first and prevailing view is that Floyd’s murder was symbolic of the broader oppression of blacks in the country, precipitated by the unearned privileges and unconscious biases of the white population that remains unwilling to come to terms with its unconscionable history. This is the position espoused by virtually every mainstream news organization in their assessments of the current goings-on. In this telling, police brutality is just one manifestation of systemic anti-black racism in the United States and, until the majority comes to accept this uncomfortable reality, we cannot move forward as a nation. Even after officer Chauvin had been arrested and charged for murder, the harm wrought by the protests is the justifiable reaction to centuries of mistreatment.

In an article for The New York Times, opinion columnist Charles Blow writes, “The protests are not necessarily about Floyd’s killing in particular, but about the savagery and carnage that his death represents: The nearly unchecked ability of the state to act with impunity in the oppression of black bodies and the taking of black life.” In a Vox piece entitled “George Floyd’s killing has opened the wounds of centuries of American racism,” Emily Stewart argues just that: “Beyond the debates about the tactics demonstrators are using and who is and isn’t involved, there is a much deeper issue here that must remain in focus: the way black people are treated in the United States.” Writing for The Atlantic about the protests, Arnold Schwarzenegger (of all people), says that “We can’t ignore the issues of inequality in this country. No one can claim with a straight face that black and brown kids in the inner cities get an education equal to what kids in the suburbs receive. No one can deny that minorities find themselves on the wrong end of our justice system in unequal numbers. No one with a heart can watch these murders and not feel deep sadness, anger, and even guilt.”