The murderers of Ahmaud Arbery were recently convicted. The shocking video of his murder at the hands of the faux vigilante father and son duo and accompanying neighbor shocked the world. In February of 2020, Arbery was jogging in the Georgia city of Brunswick when he was accosted by two men who said they believed he was robbing homes. They approached him, harassed him, and then shot and killed him. In this case, the American court system finally produced a just outcome. However, this kind of justice has been unfortunately rare.
The tragic list of minimally prosecuted race-inspired murders is long: George Floyd, Emmett Till, James Byrd, Travon Martin, Eric Garner, and Botham Jean represent just a few. This violence is not uncommon as African Americans are the most likely victims of U.S. hate crimes. The sheer reliability of these incidents forces the nation to engage in uncomfortable self-reflection.
Like a painful medical procedure, the problematic steps of exploring the root causes of the disease and not just the symptoms must be taken. The symptoms, the two racist gun-toting men and accomplice eventually arrested for the crime against Arbery, are acute.
Yet, time and energy were exerted on them at the expense of tackling the greater national disease, what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism. These pernicious and persistent evils represent America’s true sickness.
Racism
Racism is a historic national cancer. Yet, the collective denial and desire for cheap grace are as ineffective as a person trying to hide and ignore a large tumor. No matter how much Americans try to move on, they cannot.
Consequently, most Americans have just learned to accept it, passively consenting to a certain racial caste system that is reflected in public spaces. Every trip to a mall, airport, or restaurant reinforces the inequality to which people have grown accustomed.
People of European descent sit in first class, own industries, and occupy the top rings of capitalist society. People of color occupy the poorest and most dangerous communities and disproportionately are the greatest victims of our failure to live up to the promise of equality. The average African-American family has 1/10 the wealth of the average European American family.
Homeownership, the greatest source of wealth for Americans, is 30% less in communities of color. With this backdrop, African American achievement is seen as exceptional rather than customary. Our collective psyches have been emblazoned with these disparities.
Accordingly, most people are both victims and perpetrators of America’s racial hierarchy. Armed with this delusion, a dark-skinned man running through a neighborhood is easily and traditionally perceived as a potential criminal. When coming from a group that represents the bottom of the caste system, it is common for others to believe that their lives do not matter.
Materialism
Furthermore, capitalist materialism has left a moral vacuum longing to be filled. The faulty principles of self-reliance and individualism allow the wealthiest nation in the world to willfully ignore the causes behind the glaring social inconsistencies.
Americans consistently consider the economy their greatest priority in choosing leadership. The deity-like focus on this sector as the greatest political and social hope allows Americans to honor those who place corporate profitability above all. As long as some individuals can make money, Americans are happy.
Education takes a backseat to entertainment, justice to jobs, and freedom to financial prosperity. Those that are left behind are considered responsible for their own failure. In this individualistic model, the greatest sin is not injustice, rather the blasphemous notion that justice is more important than profit.
Militarism
Coupled with both racism and materialism is the problem of violence born from a militaristic culture. With over 300 million guns in a nation with a population just shy of that number, the U.S. has the dubious distinction of being the most heavily armed society on the planet. Americans die by firearms through suicide and homicide, 23,854 and 14,542 respectively.
Americans spend more on the military than the next top ten spending nations in the world combined. Why? What makes them so afraid, so bloodthirsty, so sad and angry, so willing to turn to violence to solve problems?
For every social ill faced, racism, depression, poverty, anxiety, and drug use, easy access to guns fuels the flame. So, what can be done? There will be an analysis provided in a future continuation of this piece. However, people must not look at this latest example of bigotry and violence in Georgia as isolated. Clearly, it is who Americans are.
The God of the Bible instructed the early believing community to not “deny justice or show partiality.” There were heavy social consequences laid out for the early Jews in the book of Deuteronomy for infractions like murder.
The principle of restitution was set forth to address violence and wrongdoing. Human beings, made in the image of God, have an innate desire to see good rewarded and evil punished. When this does not occur, even children are unsettled and confused.
Where there is no justice, there is no peace. Consequently, society must do the hard work of ensuring justice for African Americans, or this nation will face perpetual turmoil, tragedy, and violence. People must confront historical and current practices of slavery, segregation, mass incarceration, redlining, and economic exploitation. Otherwise, people are left with simplistic and ignorant explanations for obvious inequality that serves only to further promote racism. Without this kind of painful and comprehensive treatment, America’s cancer will prove fatal.
Op-Ed by Ted Williams III
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Clay Banks’ Unsplash Page – Creative Commons License
First Inset Image Courtesy of Chris Christian’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Second Inset Image Courtesy of Geoff Livingston’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Third Inset Image Courtesy of Army ROTC’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
