Dear White America,
As you well know, the concept of race and the issue of racism have
been staples of Western Civilization from the moment that Christopher
Columbus “discovered” the Caribbean. From this “discovery” we eventually
saw the settling of the North American continent and the rise of a
nation that was supposed to rest upon the principles of freedom,
justice, equality, and liberty. Many consider these four concepts the
cornerstones of this nation.
Please understand that this communication is not constructed from a
position of animosity toward you and yours. However, it is an appeal to
your humanity; that inner place that intuitively reveals to you what is
correct and incorrect, Christians call it the Holy Spirit, atheists
call it a moral compass, I call it the ability to speak truth to power
even when you will be punished for your position. Edmund Burke
articulated it a different way when he stated, “The only thing necessary
for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Hence, this call from an African-American male with a son, nephews,
cousins, and friends who resemble many of the men who have been murdered
by officers in American streets asks for you to weigh in, in a
significant manner regarding the repeated killing of my brothers in
American streets.
Now I am certain that you have already tired of and been completely
turned off by the droves of blanket criticism that my people extend in
your direction, criticism that the vast majority of you do not deserve,
however, you must excuse our tendency to group all whites together as a
monolithic group; from our perspective on issues of racial
conflict you rarely, if ever, differentiate yourselves. There are few
things that can remove the in-fighting and bi-partisanship of the white
community like racial matters; you appear very white bread and
monolithic at those moments.
I hope that you can understand that the African-American community
has been down this road of white officers murdering African-American
males repeatedly, and nary a time have we heard many, if any, members of
your community speak truth to power and denounce the murder of American
citizens in America’s streets, regardless of the victim or victimizers
race.
So in an effort to help you avoid being mistakenly identified as a
supporter of the vicious killing of Black men in the streets of America
by law enforcement officers, consider this a welcoming invitation for
you to weigh in regarding this matter in a significant way; behave as if
this string of deceased American citizens were not only
white, but also a close family friend. Behave now on the side of
freedom, justice, equality, and liberty, as if it were your son, nephew,
brother, husband, father, grandfather, that you felt compelled to pray
for each time they left your presence; a prayer that asked a higher
power to put a hedge of protection around them from the evils to be
found in the outside world.
Make no mistake about it, your failure to speak up at this moment of
crisis will cause African-Americans to group you with those who publicly
support, if not encourage white officers murder of Black men, as if
they are cheering for their favorite sports team. Your individual
and collective silence ensures that evil will triumph; as none of the
good whites did anything to either prevent evils ascension or denounced
it once it ruled this nation.
Dr. James Thomas Jones III
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