Which Side Are You On? A Message from WISDOM State Director David Liners

May 29, 2020

Which Side Are You On?

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”

W.B. Yeats, “The Second Coming”

The murder of George Floyd has made a difficult time into a terrible time. We were all sickened to witness the self-confident manner with which a police officer executed Mr. Floyd, and by the fact that his three colleagues were more concerned with controlling bystanders than with preventing a homicide. Today I wish to make an appeal to WISDOM members who are, like me, white.

Please, never, ever say “I am not a racist.” Racism has been deeply embedded in our land for 400 years. None of us has lived in a bubble. Racism is not a problem that belongs to people of color: it is OUR problem. We need to be part of the solution We don’t have to be in charge of the solution (really, the world would be just fine without us being in charge of a lot of things), but we can’t sit it out, either.

Our decision is whether we will be actively involved in anti-racist work, or whether we will be part of the problem. Racism is not one problem among many. It lurks at the heart of every oppression in our state and in our country.

Here are some things to stand up for, even in spaces where it would be more comfortable to be silent:

• There is no moral equivalence between an angry, frustrated teenager breaking a window and a police officer carrying out an extra-judicial execution. Vandalism and murder do not cancel each other out.
• What happened to George Floyd is not the result of a few bad actors who made a couple of bad decisions. This is the result of a 400 year-long systematic oppression of African-American people. Sadly, the actors are interchangeable; the drama is always the same. The only thing new is that we are actually seeing things on video.
• The cure for oppression is not greater oppression. To suggest that the response to looting should be summary execution is morally reprehensible.

It cannot be enough for us to claim we are not adding to the problem. The devastation of black and brown bodies will continue until white people who claim to be anti-racist are willing to be courageous. Our brothers and sisters are under attack, in so many ways. We cannot claim to be in solidarity with them while insisting on being safe and untouched ourselves.

David Liners,
WISDOM Statewide Director