If you make white supremacy the only place white people (or cops) feelsl safe and understood, the only beneficiary will be white supremacists. Forcing people into ideological extremes with our rhetoric only erodes the great bulk of ordinary people caught in the middle and feeds the fires of the extremists at both ends. When enough people have been sufficiently forced into the bubble at either end, the prophecy will have fulfilled itself, and we’ll have our race war for real.
We have to leave enough space for one another to stand. We can’t condemn whole races, whole histories, so glibly cast aside the essential value and sovereignty of the individual. If we leave no room for one another to stand, flawed individuals as we all are, if we leave no road back for those who stray too far into the fringes of fear and anger and pride, then we are only creating safe spaces for our enemies to multiply. We are only fashioning the weapons whose eventual clash will harm us all. Are we willing to take the chance that, if it comes to a fight, that our side might not prevail, and what kind of regime would take its place, and what we might lose forever in the conflict?
Let us then set asise our daggers and our universal condemnations. Let us focus on one another as individuals, not merely members of some class that could be opposed. Come now and let us reason together. Let us tell the stories that reaffirm our common humanity. Let us inspire and aspire.
You can only push people so far. If you leave no room for their value, for their story, if you force them to fight for their path and their place to stand, they will. The politics of opposition will only lead all of us to cut one another’s throats. It is only someone who is entirely deceived who thinks that they and their own history are beyond reproach. If all nations had their just dessert, not one would escape the noose. As was written about the French revolution, which proceeded from the best ideals, the great moral learning of the academics directing the passions of the oppressed: All perished, all– / Friends, enemies, of all parties, ages, ranks, / Head after head, and never enough / For those that bade them fall. If Justice is given every pound of flesh it is owed, not one will be spared, not one will stand.
What then, of injustice? Must we allow it free rein? Surely not. We give it least free rein who see it most clearly within all of us. Punishment must be given. But not in the way of the mob, not as a class guilt, not as an inheritance from race or religion or class or creed or parentage, not any more than righteousness can be so inherited by birth. All righteousness must be proven with lives of virtue, and all guilt by clear deeds. Punishment must have its limits and a goal beyond revenge. Forgiveness sought must be treasured, and forgiveness given like water in the desert. We must see one another as individuals, and judge each by their character, how they used their moment in time, whatever came before or after, whatever each inherited unquestioned or left behind for us to consider.
Making Nobody Happy 