I have to thank Mary for the suggestion of Dali (the cross) and Picasso (the woman). I had actually thought of it before, but most of their work is surreal or cubist or somewhat abstract, and it was hard to find a thematic match. But this one is definitely a keeper.
Particuarly as I wanted to talk about Sean Bell. I'm not going to go into the specifics of the case, which can be read by anyone in far greater detail than I can offer here, and I think, in any case, can cause one to miss the forest for the trees.
Looking at the big picture, it is impossible to miss a very salient fact. There are NEVER incidents where an unarmed white man, out for a night with friends or just coming home from work, gets riddled with so many bullets you'd think they were about to blow up a metropolis. It just doesn't happen. I believe that if you ask your average undercover officer staking out a strip club to guess whether a group of friends coming out of a club are likely to be out for a bachelor party or drug dealers, the answer will skew in different directions depending on the race of the individuals. This is called bias.
I think most white people know, intellectually, that the way most black people spend their time isn't very different than how they spend their time. We know they work, go the school, relax, visit, go shopping, talk on the phone, watch TV, surf the internet etc. But emotionally, on the level that counts, I also think there is a much higher readiness to believe that black people, particuarly the men, are up to no good. And that whiff of suspicion is increased tenfold when one is a policeman. The cops may understand, intellectually, that these guys just as likely to be coming off the nightshift or celebrating impending nuptials, but they're not operating from their head. They operate from a gut fear that gives birth to a certainty that if a black man is reaching for something, it is far more likely to be a gun than an emergency brake.
I have asked myself this question: is fear racist? There is no simple answer If you are responding to an individual who is acting in a threatening manner, no. If you are responding to a skin color, and making assumptions based solely on that, yes.
White people, and police in particular, need to calm the fuck down. Black skin does not give anyone superhuman strength, and the first instinct of a black man is not to shoot every cop he sees. Give people a chance to show you who they are before you jump to any conclusions. We all need to stop being so afraid of each other.
MCO 2008
P.S. I find an itunes radio station that plays only movie soundtracks. I'm in heaven.
Underneath the surface of bigotry lies fear. Sometimes I think that fear is the parent and bigotry is the progeny. Or maybe it's like the old riddle, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? I am certain that you've summed it up well, "we all need to stop being so afraid of each other."
"I think most white people know, intellectually, that the way most black people spend their time isn't very different than how they spend their time." Not me, I do very strange and mysterious rituals on Mondays and Wednesdays and howl at the moon every other Friday, but then, I'm special.
I really like the Dali/Picasso Hy-Art, although I had jumbled thoughts as I viewed it. I thought of truth but also of imjustice and betrayal; it's a very haunting image.
The radio station sounds divine. I shall have to take a listen. Of course that also means having a sing-a-long. I love musicals. A friend was just telling me today aboujt her recent trip to NY city and her attendance of Spamalot. It was the cast with Clay Aikens 9he has such a lovely voice) and she really enjoyed the show and thought that Clay was topnotch!