Painting all of white America as racist is racist, itself

A female activist drinks the beer of an outdoor diner during a Black Lives Matter protest in Pittsburgh, Pa., earlier this month. (Facebook screenshot)

While Black Lives Matter uses a broad brush to paint America as a land flush with systemic racism and police brutality, they do not like it when you do the same to them.

But that's not my personal take on it. That's theirs.

After watching the disgraceful and deplorable images of outdoor diners in Washington, Pittsburgh, Pa., and New York being bullied and berated as racists last week, The Rochester Voice reached out to Black Lives Matter in Manchester and Portsmouth to get their comment on what their organization had done.

The Manchester chapter did not return a message, but the Seacoast Chapter to its credit did.

Here's their comment.

"We are unaware of any situations like that happening so we are not able to speak to that nor is it our responsibility to speak to situations happening in another region of the country," the message read.

Meanwhile, police everywhere across this country are facing "retraining" on cultural bias, unconscious bias, racial bias, perceptual bias and pretty much any other bias you could come up with.

Most, if not all, law enforcement agencies have already been extensively trained in being fair and equitable to all people of all colors, creeds and cultures.

This training is unnecessary and a waste of money.

Why? Because there are always bad apples, like those in Milwaukee who lay on the neck of George Floyd till he died.

And we have them all over the place: in politics and journalism, in the FBI, among lawyers, bankers, and yes, even among Black Lives Matter.

There will be another George Floyd. If he happens to be white, you may not hear about him, but if he's black, will it be incumbent on us as a society to burn down and loot a couple of cities and get a few more people killed?

While people in this country may disagree on how we move forward, I think one thing we can agree on is that people should be held accountable for their actions, from the police that brutally killed a black man in Milwaukee to the rioters that burned parts of Milwaukee, New York and Kenosha, Wis., and yes, to the BLM protesters who terrorized whites enjoying outdoor dining in Pittsburgh, Pa., Washington and New York.

For all we know some of the diners may have made a contribution to BLM the day before.

- HT