Appeasing the barbarians ...

Suddenly, everybody is apologizing. 

Celebrities. Politicians. Pro athletes. Coaches.  Generals.  Police chiefs.  Heads of state. 

They can’t say enough how sorry they are.

I’m not sure that they’re all apologizing for.  But they want everyone to know how sincere they are.  Especially blacks. They want everyone – all the PC-approved “victim” classes – to know that they are ashamed of being white and for not speaking out about this before now.    

And for not paying much more attention to the needs and problems of black people.  Because black lives matter – in fact, black lives must matter more than any other lives.  Black lives matter more than police lives, crime victims’ lives, and business owners’ lives. Even when those police, crime victims, and business owners happen to be black, too.   

Black lives matter only when the BLM folks decide who qualifies. For instance, blacks killed in Chicago and elsewhere by other blacks don’t matter.  Black police killed by blacks don’t matter. Black owners of businesses looted and burned by blacks don’t matter. 

You won’t see BLM supporters protesting blacks killing blacks, blacks killing black police, blacks destroying black-owned businesses, and burning down black neighborhoods. 

That’s because, despite the name of the organization, only some black lives matter.       

BLM made George Floyd’s one of the lives that matter.  Not because he was anything special – far from it.  He was a career criminal high on meth and fentanyl and carrying drugs when last arrested, but because his death came at the hands of white cops he became a martyr. 

There’s little doubt those cops caused his death. There’s also little doubt at least one of them did it intentionally. There’s video of that cop refusing other officers’ requests that he stop kneeling on Floyd’s neck, even after they couldn’t find a pulse.  That’s murder in my opinion. 

We all know precisely who was responsible for Floyd’s death.  Those particular cops.  Not all other cops.  Not the rest of America.  Not all white people. 

And most certainly not me. 

I’m sorry he died.  That’s all I got.  That’s not enough for a lot of folks.  Too bad. 

I won’t apologize for something I never did, wouldn’t do, and had no part in.  It may make some people feel virtuous to apologize for being white and to confess their sin of white privilege, but I can’t bring myself to do that.

Because for me it would be bald-faced lie.  I’m not sorry for something I didn’t do. I won’t accept blame for things over which I personally had no control, just to appease someone else.     

I can’t apologize for being white; I had no choice of in the matter. My parents were white, their parents were white, and I’d bet my great grandparents were white as well.  You don’t have to be a Nobel-winning geneticist to figure the odds I’d be white, too.  As far as I can tell, nobody in my family ever owned slaves or participated in the slave trade, either. I’m positive I never did.

I always went to integrated public schools, both in Miami and in New Jersey.  My public university was integrated.  I never lived or went to school in an intentionally segregated environment. 

I can’t honestly say some of my best friends growing up or in college were black. They weren’t.  My best friends were white. I suspect most of the black kids’ best friends were black.

In my career, I worked with many black professionals, men and women, as clients.  I genuinely enjoyed working with them.  Some came to my house for purely social events; we also often sat together at their companies’ celebrations.  We had a lot of heart to heart conversations well beyond business matters on all manner of topics.  But curiously, never about race. 

Their race and my race were a given.  And wholly irrelevant to our relationship.

I guess what I’m getting to is that I’m not blind to someone’s race – that would be a ridiculous thing to say.  But it doesn’t make that much of a difference to me.  I don’t care what race anyone is. Unfortunately, that makes some folks today very angry.  Again, too bad. 

Shameless groveling doesn’t suit me either.  It’s one thing to beg for forgiveness if you are at fault and you’re truly sorry.  It’s quite another if you’ve done nothing wrong. That’s just stupid. 

If you think unwarranted apologizing and groveling will appease someone or some group that’s threatening you, you are an idiot.  A spineless pussy. A patsy. Cringing and groveling don't make bullies suddenly like you; it does the opposite – they despise you for your weakness and know they can get whatever they want from you, anytime they like.  They own you. 

Until you stand up and confront them head on – call their bluff and fight back if necessary – you’ll always be their bitch.  They’ll humiliate you time and time again to prove it.   

I refuse to play this game.  That puts me out of the social and political mainstream at present.  

Watching celebrities, politicians and other public figures abase themselves to appease barbarians disgusts me.  Pretending wholesale pillaging, looting, destruction of property and violence against innocents is nothing more than a peaceful protest is insane; it’s the work of barbarians. It’s not being done in the service of a noble and just cause.  It’s an attempt to intimidate, bully, and see how much they can extort from all of us before we fight back. 

Unfortunately, so far it’s working pretty well for the bullies. That's disheartening.     

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m simply not comfortable appeasing bullies of any kind, particularly now, even though a lot of other folks think that’s acceptable.

I can’t do it.  It goes against my principles, and my self-respect.

I am sorry about one thing: that so many among us seem to have neither anymore.