Letter to the Editor: Take Responsibility

The recent horrible murder of a compliant black man at the hands of police in Minneapolis has shone a light once again on the clear, uneven justice dealt out by law enforcement across this country. Although many white Americans cannot stand the sight of a black football player taking a knee on the football field to protest these many injustices, they have much less of a problem seeing a white police officer take a knee to the neck of a handcuffed black man and ending his life.

We talk about how horrible this is among ourselves, but what action have we taken? When do we white Americans take to the streets and say, “NOT IN MY NAME!”? Because if we don’t do this, we are tacitly allowing this to continue.

This was not an isolated incident in Minneapolis. These occasions are endemic in this country. North, South, East and West. Every large city in this country has had similar tragedies to take responsibility for.

I have put a Black Lives Matter sign up in our yard in a gentrified white neighborhood, only to find it taken in the middle of the night because the sensibilities of my wealthy white neighbors could not tolerate looking at such a tasteless display. It is, apparently, much easier, for them to watch a white cop take a knee to a black person’s neck.

Wake up. Take responsibility for what we allow to exist and have created in this country.

John Wilson

Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin