I assume that I’m supposed to respond to the police shootings in Dallas that everybody’s discussing today. I would probably relate it to the instances when white police officers shot black men earlier this week when such force was unnecessary. Then I would note that this is part of a broader trend of such shootings and then racism in general. I would probably then relate this to the problem we have in this country with gun violence in general, in all of its myriad forms. Maybe I could include some statistics and graphs to support my assertions.
As true as any such statements are, and as much evidence there is out there to back them up, I just have a hard time responding to this topic. It’s not that I’m traumatized by the events in question—though they are tragic—I’m a white male in a quiet neighborhood bordering on the sub-rural that doesn’t have a history of police violence. I did have a gun pointed at me in earnest once in my life, although it wasn’t personal. It wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t personal. It was some kid that wanted to rob the store I where I was working at the time.
My point is that I don’t have any personal experience to draw from. I can express disgust at what happened, but I can’t drag that out into my usual minimum of five hundred words. I could tackle broad generalities, but the broader I get the cheaper the sentiment would be. I think I would get pretty broad.
I’ve said before that I don’t like the idea of the police. But that isn’t based on any personal experience with bad cops. I more have a sort of disdain for the institution in general. But I can’t reject all police presence. When I was walking down the street with my sister and she got attacked by some random drunk, who was it that I yelled for? When the store got robbed, who did I have to call?
So I can’t make this a blog post about police. what about racism? Racism is bad. Yes, that’s about as much as I can say on the subject. I haven’t been studying racism in this country other than what I’m picking up in the news stories. I know there’s institutional racism as well what takes place on a personal level. But I haven’t seen it in person. The only time I’ve ever heard anybody called the n-word in person, in earnest, was in elementary school. And it was a white kid calling another white kid that word. He apparently didn’t even know how to be racist.
So I have to step back sometimes. It isn’t that I’m callous, nor do I have feelings. But that doesn’t always mean that I have something to say—not here, anyway. I wouldn’t do anybody any justice by trying. Perhaps if I was to write a college essay on one of the subjects above I could put more time, research and thought into the subject. But my method of writing a blog post is too quick for such a work to be published here.
Ragged Good Looks 