By: Nicholas Hayen

In the past few days, my community has been rocked by tragedy after tragedy. The murder of George Floyd, the looting of businesses I have supported, and the riots that have destroyed the livelihoods of many across the region. Nearly 80% of the people involved in the looting and rioting of Minneapolis and St. Paul have come from out of state, but somehow that isn’t much of a comfort. It is easy to look at all of this tragedy and think “how could this have happened here?” For years we watched on TV how inequality, injustice, and violence have sparked riots and revolutions in countries all over the world. But we always thought those were “over there” problems. If there is one lesson we should learn from this event it is that this isn’t just hypothetical, and it isn’t just happening “over there.” It is happening here and now, and always was happening. It has been happening for decades in ignored and marginalized communities throughout the country. And it won’t go away just because you want it to.

It’s hard for many people to understand the struggles of minority communities. Though we all have difficulty in our daily lives and have all faced challenges, the failure to understand privilege is ultimately a failure to understand the experiences of others. In general, people are often defensive when confronted with the idea of their own privilege. But what exactly is privilege? I’ve written about this before, but privilege essentially means that you are given the benefit of the doubt. In casual encounters, such as bird watching in Central Park, people would generally assume that a privileged person is not a threat. Privilege is the legacy of the history of institutions designed to suppress minority communities (such as the destruction of the Rondo neighborhood in St. Paul). Even now, I can see the smoke from my house and hear the sounds of police helicopters overhead. But I know I could just get up and leave if I really needed to. That is privilege.

But ignoring privilege and the systemic problems faced by (and often imposed upon) minority communities is only one problem. What happened to George Floyd highlights the systemic problems of America’s policing culture today. It should go without saying, but almost nobody actually hates the police. On the whole, they perform a critical service that helps keep neighborhoods safe. Without them, my life and the lives of my family could have been put in danger this week. But police culture should not be immune to criticism. America has a severe problem with a militarized culture of policing. The military philosophy tends to emphasize completing a mission and neutralizing enemies. The police philosophy is supposed to emphasize fair and firm enforcement of law and protection of people and property. In war, there is often an “us vs them” mentality. When that becomes the mentality of domestic policing, then it is little wonder why such tragic and unnecessary events occur.

But you might ask., “Why are they looting and rioting?” The point of these actions isn’t to solve the problem, it’s to shock people into acknowledging that it exists. We (privileged people) are being made to feel the insecurity and suffering that many communities have felt for decades (or centuries to be honest). That’s why it is a failure to smugly dismiss these groups as “thugs” or tell them the same old tropes of “get a job” or “stop being so lazy and work”. We tried that. They tried that, and yet here we still are. I want to believe the solution is peaceful protests, like another March on Washington, but every time that happens people find the one or two bad actors and amplify their actions instead. We have disregarded peaceful movements before because it was much easier to cry foul at a few people blocking an interstate than to face the uncomfortable reality of a system which has benefited the privileged few.

For years, African American communities tried all the peaceful options. They marched in the streets, protested peacefully at rallies, and took a knee during sporting events. But instead of being taken seriously, they were ridiculed and told to shut up. So, like some many other groups throughout history, some groups are doing what they believe is the only option left to them. Nobody else listened before, but maybe they would now. I certainly don’t support the looting and rioting, but what we are witnessing now is what’s happened in many other countries throughout history. Marginalized and oppressed communities are expressing their views through through the only options they believe they have left.

In our arrogance as a nation, we pretended that we were immune to history. At the height of our global power, we pretended that injustice, riots, and demonstrations were problems in “broken places” like Africa or the Middle East. We (myself included) mused academically about the theories of political violence and dissected case studies of uprisings in developing countries. While at the same time we acted like such theories and injustices did not apply in our own backyard.

I have studied the histories of movements like these. The worst possible solution would be to escalate to lethal force. Or, as the president would say “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The Arab Spring protests in Egypt didn’t become a bloodbath because the military refused to fire on civilians. The protests in Syria erupted into civil war because the military began openly killing civilians in the street. That Trump would so callously call for the slaughter of human lives merely for the crimes of arson and robbery shows the value he places on human life. None of this projects strength, just cowardice. We desperately need leadership that will try to heal a broken nation, not divide it further.

When we look back on the history of America, this may be a tipping point moment towards something much bigger. But it starts with you. You can close this article, shrug, and go about your day thinking about how spoiled and entitled you think these protesters are. But that won’t make it go away. You can callously call for the military to just start shooting people, but that won’t make it go away either. It’s easy to ignore the bloodshed from your small town or your quiet suburb, but I’m the one who has to see the burned down buildings on my street. Or, you can acknowledge and work to understand the pain and injustice that marginalized communities have felt for generations. History has shown that groups who believe they are oppressed resort to violence when they have exhausted all other options. It’s been true in in Egypt, Syria, Venezuela, South Sudan, Hong Kong, and the original thirteen American colonies. America isn’t exceptional. Why should we consider ourselves any different? The problems that led to this destruction were here all along. We just didn’t want to see it.