At least half a dozen proverbs, across just as many cultures, teach how strife reveals true character, and how adversity is the ideal test of principle.
Nowhere is that more evident, I think, than 2020 in the United States.
The New York Times reports that the demonstrations in support of Black Lives and the Black community following the murder of George Floyd may have been the largest protests ever in the United States.
26 million people across 40 major US cities over 40 days marched, walked, and chanted. They were peaceful, forceful, and persistent.
When violence threatened to over-shadow their cause, they rooted out the evil. And when the safety of their adversaries on the day was threatened, they were heroes.
They were diverse: The crowds were primarily under the age of 35, but I know from personal experience that quite a number were over that age too. And these were not the disgruntled poor: “the income group with the largest share of protesters were those earning more than $150,000.”
Let’s resist the temptation to question motives. Was the cause helped along by a pandemic that trapped everyone at home with nothing to do? Perhaps. But that’s how Providence works. By ordering circumstance.
When change comes, it won’t poll its proponents for degree of devotion. And when we see in photographs of our icons the sea of bodies marching behind them, there are no stickers for those who had nothing better to do that day. That they showed up is all that matters.
After a noisy start and the chaos of outrage, the movements coalesced around a pretty clear set of asks that include the arrest and indictment of George Floyd’s murderers, the defunding and reform of the police establishment that makes such murder possible, all within the table-stakes of a more intentional reckoning with and acknowledgment of America’s legacy of racism and white supremacy.
And what happened?
Things.
Things were said: Nike released a very good ad; Netflix made some good twitter posts; dozens of companies released statements of solidarity or support.
Things were promised: The Fortune 100 has collectively pledged $1.6B to fight racism.
Things were painted: Taking the tally, looks like there are now Black Lives Matter murals in Seattle, Washington DC, New York City, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, Cincinnati, Sacramento, Park City, Orlando, Underhill, Oak Park, Atlanta, Charlotte, and other cities that didn’t pop up on Google.
Other things too: We got a Black Lives Matter Plaza in D.C., and an “appropriately contextualized” upload of Gone With The Wind on HBO Max.
My company might let me take off Juneteenth next year.
I am not ungrateful. After all, when a starving man enters a restaurant, sits, places an order, and waits in pain, the “free” bread he is brought is a soul-warming reprieve, and butter never tasted so rich.
But never forget: he did in fact order a f*cking steak. And man cannot live by bread alone. (that’s in the Bible, y’all)
Arresting George Floyd’s murders isn’t a give. It was the obvious thing, like when someone owes you $50 and they say they can only pay you $20 so you argue loudly, and so desperately that when your debtor gives you $50 it only feels like victory until you realize they owed you that money all along.
This was the nature of much of what was given: things that shouldn’t have to be asked for, like confrontation of our daily complicity in the perpetuation of a system built on, profiting from, and then discarding those of a different skin tone.
Even in the face of overwhelming numbers, that main asks – the demilitarization, defunding, and re-establishment of America’s police forces – have gone unanswered.
So what does it take for a group of people, angry, loud, and persistent, to get what they asked for? To push past being patronized, and receive a meaningful, costly concession from one of America’s most powerful institutions?
Well…
On July 13th, the Washington Redskins announced that after “a thorough review of the team’s name…” (its eight letters each requiring a decade of parsing, apparently) “…we are announcing we will be retiring the Redskins name and logo…”
Native Americans have been requesting this for decades, peacefully and persistently. Dan Snyder, the owner of the team, had previously declared he would never change the team’s name.
What changed, and what does that reveal about America’s principles?
FedEx, Nike, and PepsiCo asked that company to change its name. Of their own accord? Meh…more likely in accordance with the 87 investment firms and shareholders, collectively worth $620B who asked them to do so.
And so it is, with team names as it was with slavery, that strife has revealed character, and revealed that even with race, what matters most to America is money.
In the final analysis, Wu-Tang had it right: Cash rules everything around me.