Where things turned south

When I first saw the security video of Ahmaud Arbery at the construction site, I’ll admit the first thought that flashed across my mind was “uh oh, that looks a little sketchy.” And then I caught myself. First, let’s acknowledge that everyone looks a little sketchy when you see them on a grainy security cam video. And then I remembered, how many times have George and I snooped around a construction site? We see some new construction going up in the neighborhood and we’re curious, so we poke around and take a look. I suppose technically it might be trespassing, but it’s harmless, we’re just looking around. At least it’s harmless for us, because we’re white. Nobody’s going to freak out and call the police, and even if they did, the police would size us up, politely tell us we’re technically trespassing, and send us on our way. But a black man doing the exact same thing? That arouses suspicion and fear. And now he’s dead.

The police came for George Floyd because he had passed a fake $20 bill. When you heard that, did you assume he was a forger? Did it occur to you that he might have received it from somewhere else and just passed it on, not knowing it was counterfeit? It’s not common, but it happens. It’s happened to me. But I’m white, so when it happened to me, the store clerk assumed correctly that I was unaware of the counterfeit. They apologized and handed it back, I apologized and gave them a different bill, and that was that. Unfortunately for George Floyd, he was Black, so the store clerk presumed an intentional crime and called the police, who also presumed his guilt and dangerousness. And now he’s dead. Do you see where these stories turned south? Bad cops are a crucial part of the problem, but the problem is so much bigger than that.