Let’s start with Newt Gingrich. Yes, Newt Gingrich of all people.
Here’s what he said last week after two more young black men were shot to death by police officers, after a black man murdered five Dallas police officers under cover of a peaceful protest.
“If you are a normal white American, the truth is you don’t understand being black in America. … It is more dangerous to be black in America. It is more dangerous in that they are substantially more likely to end up in a situation where the police don’t respect you and you could easily get killed. And sometimes for whites it’s difficult to appreciate how real that is and how it’s an everyday danger.”
To his credit, Gingrich said it had taken many years and many people talking to him about this foundational American divide before he began to grasp the truth in it.
In this hour of pain and grieving for all of us, it would be a good start for those of us who are white to acknowledge the simple, profound truth of what Gingrich has gradually sorted out.
In America, with what President Obama referred to last week as our “tough history,” it is simply different being black and white. It is harder to be a black person in this day, in this place.
That is not the cue for white defensiveness. You are not being personally accused. It doesn’t make you a bad person because you have had the privilege of being born white. Simply it is a moment for self-reflection, for acknowledgement, for empathy.
Because when we turn toward empathy we can begin to communicate honestly. And there is a lot to communicate. In this era of smartphone video and live streaming, we are now able to see incontrovertible evidence that far too often police officers treat our black neighbors with disrespect, hostility and even fatal force. This is not some mythology among African Americans. It happens, and far too often.
Policing has to change. It has started, in many places — Oak Park is one — to change. We see avenues where gradually, consciously connections have been built between cops and black citizens. Discouragingly one of the places cited for great progress was Dallas, where a single person actively sought to undue genuine headway.
Nowhere in urging or demanding that policing must change is there a unilateral condemnation of cops. Police are essential to our safety, our ability to share in community. Every reasonable person can see that police officers do dangerous work that would scare the pants off the rest of us. A benefit of Dallas is watching so many people consciously raising up police officers in their response.
On Saturday, Commissioner Richard Boykin, the Oak Parker who serves the West Side and near suburbs on the Cook County Board, held an event he called an “Endangered Population Summit.” The morning after Dallas I coincidentally had breakfast with him and heard him calling police commanders on the West Side urging them to turn out for the event so they could be publicly supported.
But he said to me, bad cops have to go. There has to be an active process for weeding out police officers who fail their communities. No one should be surprised there are bad cops. The shame is in covering for them.
There has been a lot of talk since Thursday of America being on the brink. That talk is too hot. But we are in a moment of opportunity to step back from instinctive positions. And if Newt can do it, so can the rest of us.
