Tuesday, June 2, 2020 | 2 a.m.
View more of the Sun's opinion section
Like a tennis match, for years, black people have been going back and forth with white friends, neighbors and colleagues attempting to explain the frustration, angst and fears regarding living the complex black experience in America.
We serve up numerous occurrences where there should seemingly be no debate, no equivocating regarding the disregard and dehumanization of our very existence.
We volley to you …
Trayvon Martin.
You hit back … “He should have followed orders.”
Eric Garner.
“He shouldn’t have resisted.”
Ahmaud Arbery.
“He was trespassing.”
In a very short period of time, we have seen some of you more passionate, vocal and upset by the rightful lockdown of your beauty salons than about the unrighteous lockup and mistreatment of our black sons and daughters. We see you fight passionately for freedom but passively for equality. And for a moment, we thought you finally understood. And then looting happened. And we lost you again. Because some are more disgusted with the aftermath of injustice than the horrendous acts that caused it.
But you say you love us.
You say you appreciate your black friends, colleagues, neighbors. Yet we live in places you’ll never visit. We have fears that will never keep you awake. We have hurdles that you have not helped to dismantle. And the little evidence we needed to confirm your love for us was not solidarity but understanding. We understand you did not create this system, but we simply needed you to acknowledge it exists. And to not make us feel foolish and ignorant for seeing that it does. And being angry at its results.
I am exhausted playing the back-and-forth with you. I now need for you to pick a side. I do not want to feel like you are against my very existence or aggressively resistant to acknowledge the pains and struggles of it. This is not a side of black or white. Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Democrat or Republican. It is a decision of right and wrong.
Nine days after terrorists brought down the World Trade Center Towers, President George W. Bush stood before a joint session of Congress and before millions of Americans watching on television. Concerning the new battle all Americans now had to fight against religious extremism, the president said, “The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.”
Pick a side.
Love is often cited in these debates. A love of God. A love of America. A love for our fellow man. But what is the value of that love if it causes you to be unmoved by the struggles and hurt of the very people you claim to love? What is the value of your love if it is contingent upon conditions suitable to your comfort level? What is the value of your love if it stops where your lack of understanding and empathy starts?
Just like that exhausting back-and-forth game of tennis, your love means absolutely nothing.
Chris Charles Scott is a Las Vegas-based, award winning documentary filmmaker. Since moving to Las Vegas in 2010, he has been actively involved in activism and organizing within the faith, political, and African-American communities.
