talking past each other - a tragedy
“I can’t breathe.”
I’ve had immense luxury of time to think about the recent events of H1-2020. Privilege to not have been personally affected, I looked into perceptions of the BLM movement from both ends of the spectrum. For those less fortunate, it is not acceptable for the rest to continue in non-action – in some cases, even implicitly benefiting. While it is important that we strive and continue to demand for change in status quo, it is vitally imperative to engage with those of differing perspectives and opinions.
We all contribute to the problem if we don’t listen to each other for solutions.
Drunk on delusion and loneliness, the contagion of misused self-encouragement spread as the projections for COVID19-cased deaths grew increasingly exponentially grim, approaching over hundred thousand cases in nyc alone 3.
The usual escape from reality in the infinite void of scrolling through instagram provided little distraction as analytical data visualizations and sarcastic caricatures was nourished by the common human-killing parasite.
“hope you’re doing well during these strange times”
These words of fronted stoicness, ending a typical email for another working-from-home student, non-essential worker, or privileged big-tech employee particularly struck me as disingenuous.
That’s what I already reminded myself every morning as I woke up to the sound of a neighboring baby’s daily 6AM tantrum routine.
Strange times indeed with 52-week record stock market performance despite unemployment soaring to historic levels rivaled only by the Great Depression 4.
Income inequality and the forces of the Invisible Hand are soberingly evident as essential workers risk health and safety in serving the broader community, yet are compensated in an insincere, and ineffective altrism-esque “Thank You” pay 5.
Civil unrest and anxiety finally boiled over as the reality of the ugly and outright cruel African American plight was put on full blast 2.
Immediately following showed a key juxtaposition between the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter local community, and the opposing rhetoric and criticism from leadership and those in political and financial power 6.
It was striking to see the two communities, not even talking past each other, express their confusion in riled exasperation of their own bubbles and echo chambers. A simple litmus test reveals the gaping void of disengagement: FiveThirtyEight recently highlighted an extensive Pew Research Center survey of nearly 8,000 officers across the country in 2016 7.
Across the board, between officers/the public, and whites/blacks, perceptions on deadly black-police encounters differ greatly:
- Significantly more (67% vs 31%) officers responded saying they deaths of blacks during encounters with police were isolated events as opposed to signs of a broader problem.
- This starkly contrasts against the minority of public responses (39% vs 60%)
- Among whites, there is further skew in the view that the deaths were isolated events for both officers (72% vs 27%) and the public (44% vs 54%)
- Among blacks, this starkly contrasts against the minority of responses in the view that the deaths were isolated events for both officers (43% vs 57%) and public (18% vs 79%).
Further contextually sobering is the laundary list of opposing perceptions from the full report 9:
divide on challenges police face
divide on black and white inequality
divide on protest motives
divide on role of police
Above are only miniscule samples of the extensive survey, and possibly gives context to the dynamics at play here: we each exist in our own plane of reality. Gruesomely injust or pompishly privileged alike, we each are seeing the symptoms of the general frenetic lack of empathy for each other.
The tragedy perhaps most somber lies in the perpetual violence and indignant retaliation that will not end as we remain in our comfort zone – until we confront the reality that the truth is not as objective as we always think, and that really, it is the collective of our subjective personal experiences for which we must consolidate before looking to each other for solutions.
While those in power continue to perpetuate the plight of the victims, the less fortunate and least-equipped desperately bear the heaviest and most painful consequences.
Reference
[1] Demby, Gene. “What We See In The Eric Garner Video, And What We Don’t,” July 29, 2014. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014….
[2] “2019–20 Coronavirus Pandemic.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, May 12, 2020. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019….
[3] “Unemployment in U.S. Unexpectedly Fell in May: Live Updates.” The New York Times. The New York Times, June 5, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/business/jobs-report-stock-market-coronavirus.html.
[4] Selyukh, Alina. “As ‘Hero’ Pay Ends, Essential Workers Wonder What They Are Worth.” NPR. NPR, May 30, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/05/30/864477016/as-hero-pay-ends-essential-workers-wonder-what-they-are-worth.
[5] Hill, Evan, Ainara Tiefenthäler, Christiaan Triebert, Drew Jordan, Haley Willis, and Robin Stein. “8 Minutes and 46 Seconds: How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody.” The New York Times. The New York Times, June 1, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html.
[6] Phillips, Morgan. “Trump Vows to Mobilize Federal Resources in Address to Nation, Makes Surprise Trip to Church That Caught Fire.” Fox News. FOX News Network, June 1, 2020. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-vows-to-mobilize-federal-resources-to-end-riots-i-will-fight-to-protect-you.
[7] Perrybaconjr. “How The Police See Issues Of Race And Policing.” FiveThirtyEight. FiveThirtyEight, June 4, 2020. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-police-see-issues-of-race-and-policing/.
[8] Morin, Rich, Kim Parker, Renee Stepler, and Andrew Mercer. “Comparing Police Views and Public Views.” Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project, May 30, 2020. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/01/11/police-views-public-views/.
[9] Pew Research Center, Jan. 2017, “Behind the Badge: Amid protests and calls for reform, how police view their jobs, key issues and recent fatal encounters between blacks and police.“
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/01/Police-Report_FINAL_web.pdf