A prescription for curing the chronic disease of racism in America

The symptoms of the disease

The rioting we are witnessing, throughout cities in the United States, in the aftermath of the  horrific murder or George Floyd in Minneapolis, are all too familiar images of understandable reactions to the pain of racist attacks on black citizens. From the murder of George Floyd this week; to the slaying of Atatiana Jefferson, last year; to the beating of Rodney King in 1991; to the killing of 11 members of MOVE in 1985; to the deaths of 648 African-Americans in the mass murder/suicide of the People’s Temple in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978; to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in1968; to the murders, by firebomb, of Harry and Harriette Moore in 1955; to the countless other black martyrs whose bodies swung, as strange fruit, from the limbs of lynching trees and whose blood stains the pages of American history, the riots you are seeing are reactions to the chronic pain of an ongoing onslaught on our right to exist, as fellow human beings, in this country that our ancestors, through slave labor, built.

The diagnosis of the disease

It is the slave labor of our black ancestors that jumpstarted an American economy that grew to dominate global economics. The fact that we have given so much to the establishment of this nation makes the pain of ongoing attempts to exterminate us that much more searing.  And the reaction to that pain, like the cries of agony and thrashing about if one were stabbed with a white-hot, iron poker is what we are seeing in the riots taking place today. Sadly, the riots, like the cries of agony and thrashing about in reaction to the stabbing of the white-hot, iron poker, do nothing to heal the wound or reduce the heat in the iron poker, or force the hand wielding the poker to drop it.  That requires more than a reaction.  It requires a response.

In psychology, a reaction is defined as an immediate or short-term, survival-oriented, defense mechanism that often is something you regret later. Whereas a  response, on the other hand, is defined as more of a long-term, flourish and thrive rather than survive oriented mechanism that goes beyond considering the preservation of one’s existence to the furthering of one’s well-being as well as the well-being of those around you.

The prescription for treating the disease

So, while understanding the RIOTS as REACTIONS, in the short-term, to the immediate pain and agony of racist attacks against us, it is incumbent upon us to go beyond this reaction to POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT, in the long-term, as the RESPONSE prescribed to eliminate the chronic disease of racism in America.  It is political engagement that will force the hand wielding the hot poker of racism to drop it and stop stabbing us with it!

As with any prescription, we must understand what political engagement is; how it differs from political action, political participation, and political involvement; how to use it; and when we can expect to see it have its palliative effects.

What is political engagement?

Political engagement is responding to external events, like the murder of George Floyd, by assessing the political power structures and processes that directly gave rise to those events; accessing those political power structures and processes; and personally committing to working to change them.

Other political activities, like  political action, political participation, and political involvement might result from political engagement but these activities, in the absence of political engagement, will prove fruitless.  The past almost 60 years since the peak of the American Civil Rights Movement offer clear evidence of this.

Protest is a form of political action and we have done it before, during, and after the height of the Civil Rights Movement and it has done little good.

Voting is form of political participation but voting alone has resulted in little change. If it had, George Floyd and many others would still be alive.

Being a member of various social and political movements and organizations is a form of political involvement, but that political involvement has not yielded the desired outcomes.  If it had, then we repeatedly would not be witnessing reactions to racist murders.

The failure of these political mechanisms, in the absence of direct political engagement clearly makes the case for the need to root all our other political mechanisms in political engagement.

Perhaps there is such a paucity of political engagement – which necessitates assessing the political power structures and processes that directly gave rise to atrocities, like the murder of George Floyd,  accessing those political power structures and processes; and personally committing to working to change them – because political engagement, in action, appears to be boring.  Posting about it on social media is not likely to yield a lot of views or likes and discussing it with friends and families might result in a lot of eye-rolling.

Despite how boring direct political engagement might appear to be it is what we must do to eliminate racism in America and doing it begins at the local level and is not exceedingly difficult.  These are the steps:

1. Contact your local government and ask for the list of local boards and committees that have citizens serve on them.  If there are none in key areas, like police advisory, human relations, public safety, community development, juvenile justice, planning, etcetera, on which citizens can serve then ask how local ordinances can be changed to make it so and work on making it so.

2. After discovering the roles citizens can play on these local boards and committees, assess those roles to determine if they are most effective. Do citizens have a real say or are they just for window dressing? Research best practices for citizen involvement and see how those in your local area measure up and let your local elected officials know the change, for the better, that you want to see. This is a link to a manual that lists best practices local governments can adopt to improve political engagement: https://www.iri.org/sites/default/files/flip_docs/How-To-Manual_FINAL_012213/files/assets/common/downloads/How-To-Manual_FINAL_012213.pdf .

3.  After discovering the roles citizens can play on these local boards and committees, even if it is not yet the role you want to see, commit to serving on them, as they are, and work to change them, from the inside, to what you want them to be.

4. Encourage your friends and family to join you in your political engagement.

Remember – political engagement is not always visible, and you might not get much notoriety but, it is the way power relations, in American democracy, are changed.  It might not be highly visible, but it is effective.  The change likely will be incremental, but it will neither be imperceptible nor ineffective.  Consider this encouraging example:

I helped organize the first planning board for a small town in North Carolina and served as the first chairperson of that board.  I received no notoriety and most people do not even know about it but a lasting outcome was the construction of a park that includes a paved basketball court and covered picnic area with access to electricity for family and community events.

So, when the smoke clears and the dust settles from the cathartic reaction of rioting let us roll up our sleeves, walk into the city halls across America and take our rightful places as citizens engaged in changing, for the better, the political institutions and power structures of America.  Having some of us serve on police oversight committees and boards, hopefully, will provide a level of accountability to prevent future tragedies like the murder of George Floyd.

See original post and other posts on Glenn Silver’s Blog.