I’ve been extremely hesitant to comment on the atrocious number of fatal shootings of African American citizens in the past months -- partly because I feel as though I’m not educated enough about the details behind each situation to make any judgments and partly because I help to make up the one percent of this country that is fortunate enough to live in a white, affluent, very rich part of the world. I'm of mostly Italian heritage. Over 70 percent of my town is Caucasian.
I have never known what it’s like to fear the police force or to be judged by my physical appearance. The police were always heroes to me as a child. I was raised to automatically trust the blue uniform and to put my faith in 911. And so I haven’t wanted to speak over those who have been so affected by recent events because I can't even begin to imagine the grief and disappointment felt by those betrayed by the badge. But as these tragedies continue in increasing numbers, I feel that as part of that one percent and as part of a minority with privileges that are so disproportionately distributed within our society, it is my responsibility to say something. It is my responsibility as a citizen, and more importantly as a human being, to ally myself with those who are being discriminated against -- to say that although I am not African American and although I can never pretend to know what so many have experienced, I am not OK with the way they are being treated. I am not OK with the way the Black Lives Matter Movement is being invalidated by #alllivesmatter. I am not OK with the militarization of our police forces and I am not OK with murder-by-cop, criminal or anyone else. I feel as though regardless of the details, police all over the world are able to disarm and arrest white offenders without firearms and so while I may not be an expert, it is very obviously apparent that forms of institutionalized racism are a prevalent problem. Condemning the loss of life and admitting the existence of an ongoing problem does not mean I'm #antiblue or that I no longer hold the police in high regards. It simply means I that I have higher standards for the officials of our country. I expect better -- because I know we are capable of more that what has happened.
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We cannot continue to compare marginalized groups to those of privilege. If we preach equality -- and the belief that we all matter -- then we must acknowledge that our political and social system is consistently failing millions of people. And we must acknowledge that in too many cases, those people are primarily African American.
I truly don’t know how to solve the current issues, but I do know that it will begin with an admission of guilt. I think that in every sense we are all guilty. We have all failed our brothers and sisters. We have failed to keep them safe and we have failed to provide them with the respect and honor afforded to each of us. I want to apologize for them -- to the 102 unarmed African American citizens shot and killed in 2015 and the rising number of those lost this year. I want to apologize to Dallas, Orlando and Ferguson, to the families and friends of each and every victim that was let down by our justice system. I want to apologize and I want to be able to promise that we will do better, we will be better. We won’t continue to stand for law enforcement that doesn’t respect our communities equally, regardless of racial demographics. We won’t tolerate unnecessary force or police brutality. We will make our police forces look like the communities they represent. We will stand by our friends and let them know we are behind them, 100 percent. Nothing can make up for the lives that have been lost, but we can start to honor their memory by changing the system that failed them.
