systemic racism

There is a lot that rides on how one fills in that blank these days. In the wake of the George Floyd killing, Black Lives Matter was a rallying cry by the many who saw in this incident yet another example of the racial inequality that exists in general in our society and that is exemplified, most terribly, in the way police officers exercise lethal force. Blacks, they point out, are much more likely than whites to die when they encounter a police officer, and black parents are much more worried than their white peers for the safety of their young adult male children should they be stopped by the police. For many others, however, the black lives matter movement ignores the fact that all lives matter, that nobody should unjustifiably lose their life.We should not single out a particular group, blacks, to rally behind and instead we need to seek justice for anyone, black or white, who wrongly loses their life at the hands of a police officer. The trial and conviction of Derek Chauvin, they point out, is an illustration of how the justice system should work in securing justice for all lives. Most police officers, they argue, are doing their job as they are supposed to, and they do so while taking on all the risks involved in patrolling the streets. After all, this line of reasoning concludes, blue lives matter just as much as black lives.

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