• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • News
  • Lifestyle
McGrath: White Americans must shake off their entrenched views of race if the world is ever going to change thumbnail

McGrath: White Americans must shake off their entrenched views of race if the world is ever going to change

July 31, 2020
Record cold snap could hit New England this weekend thumbnail

Record cold snap could hit New England this weekend

February 3, 2023
Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report thumbnail

Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report

February 3, 2023
GoodRx fined $1.5 million for allegedly selling users’ health data thumbnail

GoodRx fined $1.5 million for allegedly selling users’ health data

February 3, 2023
Small Businesses Lost 75,000 Jobs in January thumbnail

Small Businesses Lost 75,000 Jobs in January

February 2, 2023
DARPA wants to push the boundaries of where satellites can fly thumbnail

DARPA wants to push the boundaries of where satellites can fly

February 2, 2023
Pamela Anderson says she and Kid Rock broke up over her 'Borat' cameo thumbnail

Pamela Anderson says she and Kid Rock broke up over her ‘Borat’ cameo

February 2, 2023
Biden and McCathy's debt-ceiling talk is a clash of strategies thumbnail

Biden and McCathy’s debt-ceiling talk is a clash of strategies

February 2, 2023
Doc Re-Used Nasal Surgery Devices; Humira Patent Game; Nonprofit Hospital Tactics thumbnail

Doc Re-Used Nasal Surgery Devices; Humira Patent Game; Nonprofit Hospital Tactics

February 2, 2023
Market Your Business With These National Days in February 2023 thumbnail

Market Your Business With These National Days in February 2023

February 1, 2023
Here’s How Much Emergency Cash You Should Keep at Home thumbnail

Here’s How Much Emergency Cash You Should Keep at Home

February 1, 2023
10 Strategies for Hiring and Retaining New Employees thumbnail

10 Strategies for Hiring and Retaining New Employees

February 1, 2023
House GOP prepares vote to remove Omar from committee after McCarthy finds escape hatch thumbnail

House GOP prepares vote to remove Omar from committee after McCarthy finds escape hatch

February 1, 2023
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
  • Donate
Friday, February 3, 2023
66 °f
Wellfleet
58 ° Tue
63 ° Wed
68 ° Thu
61 ° Fri
  • Login
  • Register
FREE Cape Cod News
DONATE
  • FREE Cape Cod News
  • News
    • News
    • Cape Cod News
    • Massachusetts
    • Breaking News
    • Cape Cod Weather
    • Storm Watch
    • Environment
  • Politics
    • democrats
    • republicans
  • Business
    • business
    • cryptocurrency
    • economy
    • money
    • Real Estate
    • Tech
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Photos
    • Orleans
    • Eastham
    • Wellfleet
    • Truro
    • Provincetown
    • Brewster
    • Chatham
  • Videos
No Result
View All Result
Free Cape Cod News
No Result
View All Result
  • FREE Cape Cod News
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Photos
  • Videos
Home World

McGrath: White Americans must shake off their entrenched views of race if the world is ever going to change

FREE Cape Cod News by FREE Cape Cod News
July 31, 2020
in World
Reading Time: 3 mins read
Donate
0
McGrath: White Americans must shake off their entrenched views of race if the world is ever going to change thumbnail
643
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on TwitterShare on Facebook

I feel slightly traitorous, like a double agent relaying secrets, in writing about what some of my friends really think about the Black Lives Matter protests.

One, for example, recently emailed me a pornographic joke referencing the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, playing off Floyd’s cry of “I can’t breathe.”

The sender frequently shares internet jokes and cartoons, and both he and the group to which he mails them believe anything is fair game for humor. Disagreement with that belief constitutes a silly surrender to political correctness.

I responded that his cartoon implies Chauvin’s slow, torturous asphyxiation of George Floyd was not really that bad, and people do not really have to worry about it. He subsequently sent the same joke, but one in which a mixed race couple was featured instead.

A second friend expressed concern about violent protests taking place close to home. Yet he persisted in his disapproval of the peaceful protests of Colin Kaepernick and others for kneeling when the national anthem was played at football games.

I asked him if he read that the protests had changed the minds of others, including star quarterback Drew Brees and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who were finally persuaded that athletes were not disrespecting the flag or our troops but pleading, instead, for an end to police taking innocent lives. He replied that he simply did not see it that way.

A third person confided that he felt a need to do something when the protests were dominating the news. So he emailed or texted friends and relatives who were police officers to assure them he appreciated what they did on the job and strongly disagreed with the ugly things being written and said about law enforcement. The whole system should not be painted as dysfunctional because of a few bad apples, he said.

He did not mention George Floyd. Nothing about the 8-minute, cold-blooded brutality of Chauvin or about the family Floyd left behind.

All three men are kind, smart and dynamic personalities, long involved in religious and community charities. We’ve debated racial matters for years.

Other white acquaintances have expressed the belief that young Black men would not be brutalized or killed by police if they simply stayed out of trouble the way they themselves do. When Black men are stopped by police on the drive home from work or from a party on a Saturday night or after shopping at the mall in the middle of the afternoon, they would be safe as long as they were polite and cooperative.

I had expected that some would have done some reading and learned, for example, of a Stanford University study that found Black drivers are 20% more likely to be stopped by police — a percentage that plummets dramatically at night, when it’s harder to identify a motorist’s race. Or a new Harvard University study that determined Black people are up to six times more likely to be killed by law enforcement.

Yet even educated white people too often revert to the easier, racist mindset they grew up with, the inertia of which seems impossible to redirect, let alone overturn.

None consider themselves racists and they have no compunctions about sharing their views.

I continue to hope that with the increased attention to the issue because of the prominent news coverage of the protests, more might step out of the cocoons of their entrenched attitudes to see and feel what excessive and unnecessary police violence looks like to someone on the receiving end.

Because even though racism seems more stubborn and incurable than a global virus, I have witnessed changes in some of my contemporaries in their 60s and 70s. Their lifelong biases have been challenged by the more compassionate behavior and beliefs of the younger generation, some of whom are their own children to whom they more willingly listen.

David McGrath is an emeritus English professor at the College of DuPage and the author of “South Siders,” a recently completed collections of columns on life in the Midwest.

Read More

FREE Digital Newspaper Subscription!
Sign up for your free digital subscription. The FREE Cape Cod News

Unsubscribe
FREE Cape Cod News

FREE Cape Cod News

Free Cape Cod News is what's happening in the Cape Cod, U.S and World & what people are talking about right now. Local newspaper. Stay in the know. Subscribe to get notified about our latest news.

Related Posts

This Korean robodog proves running on sand isn’t just for ‘Baywatch’ thumbnail
News

This Korean robodog proves running on sand isn’t just for ‘Baywatch’

by FREE Cape Cod News
January 29, 2023
Euro zone business lending growth slows sharply in November thumbnail
Business

Euro zone business lending growth slows sharply in November

by FREE Cape Cod News
December 30, 2022
With Record Military Incursions, China Warns Taiwan and U.S. thumbnail
News

With Record Military Incursions, China Warns Taiwan and U.S.

by FREE Cape Cod News
December 27, 2022
Will the U.S. and Europe slide into recession in 2023? Here’s how to look out when economic outlooks don’t thumbnail
Business

Will the U.S. and Europe slide into recession in 2023? Here’s how to look out when economic outlooks don’t

by FREE Cape Cod News
December 13, 2022
Load More
Please login to join discussion

Follow Us on Twitter

FREE Cape Cod News - Your source for local Cape Cod news, latest breaking U.S. and World news. Every day, all day. Subscribe for your favorite categories.

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report thumbnail

Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report

February 3, 2023
Epstein's Modeling Scout Pal Jean-Luc Brunel Detained on Suspicion of Rape and Trafficking thumbnail

Epstein’s Modeling Scout Pal Jean-Luc Brunel Detained on Suspicion of Rape and Trafficking

December 18, 2020
Trump to sign executive orders protecting preexisting conditions and seeking a way to prevent surprise medical bills thumbnail

Trump to sign executive orders protecting preexisting conditions and seeking a way to prevent surprise medical bills

September 25, 2020
Record cold snap could hit New England this weekend thumbnail

Record cold snap could hit New England this weekend

February 3, 2023
Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report thumbnail

Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report

February 3, 2023
GoodRx fined $1.5 million for allegedly selling users’ health data thumbnail

GoodRx fined $1.5 million for allegedly selling users’ health data

February 3, 2023

FREE Cape Cod News On Twitter

Today’s News

  • Record cold snap could hit New England this weekend February 3, 2023
  • Joe Biden Offered Vladimir Putin 20 Percent of Ukraine to End War: Report February 3, 2023
  • GoodRx fined $1.5 million for allegedly selling users’ health data February 3, 2023
  • Small Businesses Lost 75,000 Jobs in January February 2, 2023
  • DARPA wants to push the boundaries of where satellites can fly February 2, 2023
FREE Cape Cod News

Copyright © 2022 Free Cape Cod News

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
  • Donate

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • FREE Cape Cod News
  • News
    • News
    • Cape Cod News
    • Massachusetts
    • Breaking News
    • Cape Cod Weather
    • Storm Watch
    • Environment
  • Politics
    • democrats
    • republicans
  • Business
    • business
    • cryptocurrency
    • economy
    • money
    • Real Estate
    • Tech
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Photos
    • Orleans
    • Eastham
    • Wellfleet
    • Truro
    • Provincetown
    • Brewster
    • Chatham
  • Videos
  • Login
  • Sign Up

Copyright © 2022 Free Cape Cod News

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist