Dear Westfield State University Alumni and University Community:
The recent events of the last few months and the last few weeks have reminded us of what people of color know all too well: that all too often people of color are not treated with the dignity and respect accorded to others.
Take for example, Amy Cooper, the unhinged woman in Central Park, who intentionally tried to play on the unconscious or conscious bias of law enforcement to falsely report that she was being threatened by a black man in a 911 call. But for the video evidence, it would have been her word against his word.
Then there was the jogger in the Atlanta area who was killed by a man who assumed he was in the act of some kind of crime at a nearby home construction site.
What brought this topic to a head was the death of Mr. Floyd. Watching the video showing the death of Mr. Floyd was heart wrenching, bringing rise to the question, why. My words alone cannot adequately describe the lack of compassion and abandonment of humanity that we all were a witness to in that killing.
After I completed my first draft of this letter, yet another example of the use of unnecessary deadly force on an African American male occurred in the Atlanta area after a DUI traffic stop. Where does it end.
As citizens of this country, we are both saddened and angry at the confluence of recent events that have revealed how much more we need to do to create a just, fair, and peaceful society.
But we must do more than express our feelings of sadness and anger. As people of all walks of life, we must look individually with increased vigor at what we are doing, or failing to do, to root out any conscious and unconscious bias in ourselves and our community; to ensure that the justice provided to African Americans is the same that is provided to all Americans; to create in our society, our corner of the world, a place where all are truly equal.
As members of the Westfield Alumni, we should be striving to set an example and reexamine why, too often, our society fails to treat African Americans the same as white Americans, and recommit ourselves to the systemic change needed to make equality under the law an enduring reality for all. This must be a time not just of reflection but of peaceful, nonviolent action.
However, we must use caution not to proclaim that all law enforcement officers are racist or prejudice towards people of color and or use excessive force. The overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers are professional and just. Much the same way that not all protestors are looters or engage in needless violence against others. The overwhelming majority of protesters assert their valid grievances in a peaceful and nonviolent manner.
There is nothing easy about any of this. It will be uncomfortable: there will be difficult conversations, challenging introspection and hard decisions. We must recognize and address our own biases, conscious and unconscious. We must recognize and condemn racism when we see it in our daily lives and make a difference.
We must recognize and confront unconscious bias while combating, by legal means, conscious bias in all aspects of society.
Perhaps most importantly, it is a time for solidarity and fellowship with African Americans to acknowledge their experiences and emotional pain, to hear about the conversations they now have with their children, and to stand together when others may try to divide us.
During the civil rights march in Alabama in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed for non-violent protesting and while in jail he authored a letter to the clergy of the region. I urge you to read the letter in its entirety known as "The Letter from the Birmingham Jail, when Dr. King, wrote in part:
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
Let us join together and make the changes that are needed in our society and not sit by and watch but take a leadership role in affecting real systemic change that requires individual responsibility and leadership of all people.