5/30/2020

DJT,

            Are you tired? I know I am. My chancellor, Gary S. May is tired, too. Dr. May has a lot more to complain about than either you or I. He has to encounter racism on a daily basis when you and I get to forget about it most of the time. As Dr. May writes, “George Floyd could have been any African American man, including me. Beyond the constant barrage of fear of the negative consequences of birding while black, shopping while black, cooking out while black, exercising while black — it is just exhausting.” Don’t you think it’s time to do something about this?

            I think we could start by learning the names of the people whose lives have been unjustly taken from them by people who are paid to protect them. Rodney King, Treyvon Martin, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Stephon Clark, just to name a few of the African-Americans killed by police whose excuse was they were scared.

Next we could recognize that the fear experienced by the folks in blue is due to the pervasive messages in our culture that dehumanize and criminalize POCs.  Your “shooting and looting” tweet yesterday contributed to that dehumanization. Rather than proclaiming that law and order must be restored, you could acknowledge the anger & empathize with the rage. I encourage you to reach out to your buddies Sen Tim Scott & Scott Turner so you can better understand how folks are feeling right now. Better yet call BHO, he can tell you all about racism. Then you might address the nation to show you get it.

We are suffering from two pandemics now – CV & racism. We have hurricanes and spring flooding to worry about, too. Please don’t start any other conflicts.

HYITL,