The problem with semantics

There has been a lot of rhetoric used in the past few weeks. With said rhetoric a lot of messages have been sent and that means that those messages have to be interpreted. That’s where things get tricky. I think that there are some people who are more concerned with semantics than the actual messages being delivered.

I’ll start with the phrase that is now saturated in social media and the social consciousnesses of most of the country and that is “Black Lives Matter”. That phrase has transformed society into two camps. There are those who understand the underlying message for the need for equality and the systematic discrimination that needs to be eradicated. And then there are those people who seem to be so offended by the term “Black Lives Matter” because they probably believe that Blacks are being pushed for a position of superiority and not equality, that there is a movement made to solely emphasize the plight of people of color. Therefore, this camp has adopted the counter terminology “All Lives Matter”. The “All Lives Matter” term is problematic now because it has basically been equated to calling a person of color the “n” word because it is so dismissive of the other camp.

The origin of the Black Lives Matter movement started at the University of Missouri in the fall of 2015. It was part of the shockwave caused by the riots in Ferguson, MO in the summer of 2014 which were a result of the killing of Mike Brown and the subsequent lack of legal action taken against the officer who killed him. I bring this slight history lesson up because this hits home for me on two fronts. The first is that I am from the St. Louis metropolitan area, so the university and the city are very familiar to me. The second is that I spent quite a significant time in Ferguson for about 2 year while playing rugby in STL because of the practice field for my club being in the city limits. The Quick Trip that burned down was a frequent spot my teammates and I would go to after practice. To see it looted and burned was heartbreaking. And that is because it was personal.

When I first heard of the Black Lives Matter movement, I was confused by it. I was confused because I assumed that the movement was negating the rest of the world. I am a black man but I fully acknowledge and actually take comfort in the fact that the world is a multitude of ethnicities. I was part of the “All Lives Matter” camp. I knew there was racism. I’ve personally experienced racism. I just always thought that if “All Lives Matter” it would be a unifying call to arms. I was wrong, I was very wrong. And the person who showed me the error of my ways was not who I was expecting it would be, It wasn’t an academic. It was a comedian. Chris Rock eloquently put forth an analogy that just really resonated with me. He said “Just because someone says “Black Lives Matter” doesn’t mean that other lives don’t. Of course all lives matter. It’s just like people who say “Save the whales” doesn’t mean fuck other animals.”

I was ignorant of the fact that those students were trying to promote a wholesale end to the same institutions which have led to the deaths of countless people of color. I didn’t get the complete message, so I was ignorant. Ignorant is a term that people find to be offensive but it really isn’t. It is just a state of not knowing. Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know. Whether it be automotive repair, sports, classical art, poetry, or the history of racial politics in this country. A person cannot fully articulate over 400 years of oppression and degradation in a simple hashtag. It’s far too complicated and unfortunately when a complex message is relayed more often than not, a part of that message is lost in translation. Once I realized that the students were trying to push for equality because for centuries people of color were not seen as equal but as subservient and bestial and therefore their murders were hardly ever seen as criminal actions the phrase became personal. Black lives do not matter to a lot of people unfortunately. And until they do, the murders of men and women like Ahmud Arbury, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and countless others will be a moot point.

There has been another term that has been saturated on social media lately and it is really upsetting to some people. That term is “White privilege”. Many people have tried to explain what it means and some people have started to acknowledge that it does exists and it is an issue. Again, there is another camp that is dismissive and offended by the terminology. White privilege is not a reference to socioeconomic status. There are plenty of Caucasian people who grow up in poverty. Those who have traveled outside of the United States and into Europe can attest to the fact that some of those individuals exist in war zones that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. What the term white privilege is trying to articulate is that social perception of Caucasians, by and large, affords certain social benefits that many African-Americans do not receive. The treatment by law enforcement is the most publicized use of privilege but it is even more apparent in other arenas such as job applications, bank loans, tax rates,  home ownership, and other financial arenas. Again, the term is being construed by some as implying a superiority. White privilege does not mean every single white person was born with a silver spoon in their mouth or that they will not endure hardships. Life has a way of testing us all. But certain people will have an inherent advantage in “the struggle” because of the overwhelming public perception of one group versus another group that has a different melanin level.

The last term I want to throw out is one that hasn’t become part of the standard jargon yet. But it is a term that I think carries probably the most weight going forward. That term is “casual racism”. What I mean by casual racism is a prejudice that is not so blunt as to be obvious but a prejudice which gives the public illusion of tolerance yet harbors similar resentment and tones of bigotry. When most people hear the term racist, they think of the individual who is a boisterous extremist. They will spew hate speech, dress in racist regalia, and make their viewpoints very visible. Surprisingly, these people never really bothered me because they were easy to avoid because they were honest. They never tried to be anything than their hateful selves, so they were easy to spot.

The casual racist is a much tougher case to crack. The casual racist doesn’t wear a hood and would never repeat the n word, well at least in public. They might even have……..a black friend, which of course subdues any thoughts of possible bigotry. But what a casual racist MAY do is still continue to stereotype the same individuals that claim to have the back of. A casual racist still would have a huge issue with their family member becoming involved in an interracial relationship despite the fact that they might find certain black/brown celebrities to be appealing. The biggest tell of a casual racist is the “and/but” argument. The casual racist will “and/but” often. Example: George Floyd didn’t deserve to get murdered BUT he wasn’t a good guy. Black people are getting murdered by police officers BUT what are they doing to be in question in the first place. I believe in the movement BUT it needs to happen in a way that I find to be socially acceptable, a la Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (who was assassinated for his beliefs by the way). The hot topic right now is social equality and I truly hope it continues and the fire doesn’t subside. To anyone who actually reads this, I implore you, if you have a question about race relations, please ask. I do not represent all black people. I can only represent myself, my frame of experience, and my own belief system but I am always more than willing to discuss. We are all ignorant at one time or another. That’s not an insult. It’s a fact. Progress can only be forged when we decide we don’t want to be ignorant and seek some answers to become knowledgeable.