Virtue Signaling Will Not Cause Change

I’m not a virtue signaler nor am I overly sensitive to the feelings of people who feel they must jump on every bandwagon to prove their worth in society. I don’t believe in White guilt or original White sin that must be apologized for to the nearest Black person. I don’t believe in holding 21^st Century people responsible for the crimes of 18^th and 19^th Century people and I definitely don’t believe in supporting organizations that are public and active in promoting the destruction of my ancestral home. I don’t support Black Lives Matters, an organization that promotes these principals, and many more radical ones that I haven’t mentioned, including the concept of White privilege, violence, rioting and defunding the police and creating armed militias.

I’ve taken a lot of heat this week by well-intentioned but misguided millennials who have been raised to believe in social justice. ‘We are all in this together’, they tell me, ‘Black oppression is Jewish oppression’ they sneered as I patiently (and admittingly, later in the week less patiently) explained that one can oppose police brutality and stand against discrimination without resorting to supporting a radical, violent, racist organization. One does not have to burn down buildings and beat up old people on the street to take a positive and strong stance against injustice and one does not have to denigrate another race to promote theirs, by doing that, they are essentially exhibiting the behavior that they claim to abhor.

I am willing to listen to an intelligent debate on systemic racism in the police force. The debate would have to include statistics that make sense, because the ones I’ve seen, upon further scrutiny do not show that there is a systemic problem. I would love to have a discussion on police brutality, something that is probably more at the core of the problem than systemic racism. I would love to see statistics on recorded brutality based on race and see if one race is more targeted than another. I would also like to see socio-economic information on the neighborhoods that the majority of the brutality happened in and then compare the numbers to neighborhoods where brutality happened much less. Is it a police problem, a culture problem, an economic problem, a racism problem? It’s hard to tell based on the skewed statistics being thrown around to push a political agenda.

What happened to George Floyd was reprehensible. There is no excuse to put a knee in anyone’s neck after they have been subdued. There is no excuse to continue to hold the knee there while the person begs for air. There is no excuse, period. The police officers involved in the Floyd incident have been arrested and hopefully will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

I would oppose this behavior whether the suspect was White, Black, Green, Purple or Orange, simply because it is wrong. This kind of abuse of power is unacceptable and must be universally condemned unequivocally by every segment of society. Police are not task-masters and do not have the right to do as they please and we, in society, are not their serfs.

Many have posted George Floyd’s arrest record and his autopsy report to suggest that because he had a criminal past and apparently had some drugs in his system, the police were justified in their force. The sentiment is ludicrous. The video clearly shows Mr. Floyd not resisting the officers, not fighting, being cooperative and being murdered, to that there is no debate. Was George Floyd a saint, no. Do police look at your record and make a decision on how to treat you based on it, yes. At the end of the day, however, real justice is taking a culprit into custody and letting the courts deal with him, not being judge, jury and executioner on a street corner.

Does racism exist in every level of society, definitely. Can we do something to counter it, yes. There are multiple things we can do:

1. Educate our children about the dangers of judging people based on things they can’t control. Skin color, we should teach is irrelevant, people are born with it and can’t change it. We should form an opinion of people based on their morality, their kindness or evilness and their actions.

• Eliminate race divisions in society. While White and Black supremacists continue to attempt to start a race war, Antifa, the KKK and groups like it rely on the Turner Diaries and its map to dividing the races, the Black supremacists rely on groups like Black Lives Matters and The Nation of Islam to continue to sew racial disharmony in society. One must have the courage to stand up to these groups and demand that society reject them wholly and encourage Governments to rid them from society.

• We must eliminate race baiters like David Duke and Al Sharpton who have made careers out of stirring up the races to battle each other. Al Sharpton has started more race wars than anyone else in society today. David Duke has normalized hate-based talk. These people, and people like them must be removed from society and muzzled. Free speech should be limited to speech that does not cause riots or hatred towards others.

• Universities should be held accountable for what is taught on campus. Hatred must be removed from the classrooms, tenured or not.

• Neighborhoods that have been held back from growing economically by their leadership who have grown rich by subjugating their own people must be encouraged to grow. Economic stimulus, educational programs, infrastructure upgrades. Give people hope, give them a reason to work hard and it doesn’t take long to change an attitude and a neighborhood.

• Retrain police forces and change laws so that evil people and criminals are off the streets. Don’t allow police to turn a blind eye to wrongdoings, every criminal, every mobster, everyone causing trouble and holding back neighborhood development should be removed and dealt with.

It is only by taking actions that will help people on the ground that things will change. It’s great to spend a couple of days or weeks screaming slogans until the news media moves onto the next ‘hot topic’ and discard this one like yesterday’s trash.

Making grand gestures, posting black squares, donating a few hundred dollars to what you consider a worthy cause, is it really accomplishing anything except making you feel like you did something?

If you want to make a difference, be part of the change. Run for office, lobby your politicians, continue civil disobedience even after the cameras move on to the next shiny object.

Change won’t happen immediately, there is no instant gratification. Change will happen with a lot of hard work, a ton of sacrifice and much rejection, but the end result will be beautiful, and, maybe your children will have a society that you can be proud they live in.