Lace on Race

Coffee with Marlise: When we stand trial

You won’t see me commenting much if at all on Michael Vick. Seeing he is a black man, and he harmed dogs, I am absolutely positive he will face repurcussions to the full extent of the law, as well as above and beyond in his personal life. I also am 100% positive I cannot offer a view that isn’t tainted and harmful in some way.

So, why the heck am I writing this post? Well, I just came across a Facebook post detailing the harm inflicted on dogs in that case, and I couldn’t escape this thought… A post detailing the harm inflicted on BIPOC, especially Black people by our system doesn’t illicit so much as a flinch, let alone repurcussions. A post with pictures of wounds from drug usage and “scientific” harm, and I mean the harm done within the medical community. Pictures of tired, broken bodies from homelessness, moldy homes, and inadequate resources. Pictures of the continued slavery and violence committed by the prison system. The short lives, the shattered childhoods, the lonely graves. The diseases wrought on a body from generational trauma, from work overload, from never being able to catch a breath because the little gained is always torn away.

We live in and perpetuate a system that designs communities for caged in, red lined, people fighting. Where is the outrage for that post? The post describing concentration camps painted like warehouses. The pictures of barbed wire and fencing, separating and maintaining.

Where are the cries for justice? For all economic ties to be broken to a system that operates like that. A system that knowingly takes away life, liberty, and justice from living, breathing humans? Where is the desire to no longer support any person, entity, or culture that promotes such violence and abuse? Where are the ringing phones as people flood every possible phone line to an official with their frustration and outrage at such atrocities?

We need to start recognizing that the systems working in our lives daily are extensions of us as humans, and in that trial, when every harmed person stands as a witness, the accused is every one of us who stand complicit, who stood by and did absolutely nothing. And the verdict will be, and is, guilty.

Lace on Race Admin Staff

15 responses to “Coffee with Marlise: When we stand trial”

  1. Rhonda Eldridge Avatar
    Rhonda Eldridge

    Interesting to read this tonight, on the eve of Derek Chauvain’s trial. May the focus remain where it should remain. On the behavior of the man that we all saw kill a black man.

  2. Danielle Joy Holcombe Avatar
    Danielle Joy Holcombe

    Yes, I agree Claire. I know that once upon a time I said things like “Well if he didn’t want to have that negative encounter with the police he shouldn’t have been doing whatever he was doing that caused the police to show up.” I’m paraphrasing but essentially, those were my thoughts. They make me cringe now that I have chosen to see and hear the truth but I absolutely held that voice in my head that the ill treatment (or the financial and other hardships and lack, etc.) were deserved.

    I have struggled a little bit to see the groups who are all up in arms about children in cages NOW. People who are currently on board fighting for the rights of the refugees coming in at the southern border. I often hear them say things like “This is not America.” and other ‘this has never happened here’ type statements as they blame Trump for every ill. Don’t misunderstand. I ache for the those seeking refuge here who are flung into camps and separated parent from child but this is not new behavior in America. This is just another way that we (white America) vilify and devalue people of color as we always have done.

    Also, just a side note. My SO has pointed out to me more than once that I am more sad when an animal dies or is harmed in a movie than I am when a human dies or is harmed. I know I need to dig down to the root of that but I have definitely verbalized to him something along the lines of – they were innocent and didn’t choose to be in that place and time where that horrible thing happened to them.

  3. Lace Watkins Avatar
    Lace Watkins

    Easy fix. No worries.

  4. Radha Avatar
    Radha

    It’s a double post, I don’t know how it happened!

  5. Lace Watkins Avatar
    Lace Watkins

    Radha, is this a double post, or did you add another thought?

  6. Radha Avatar
    Radha

    I often see commenters being willing to jump with both feet into arguments about how we should be able to hold both thoughts—that cruelty to animals is bad, and systemic racism is also bad. And the line of thought will eventually, and tediously, always lead to how the commenter much prefers animals to humans because the former embody a sort of genuine love akin to purity and virtue, without any shade of dissembling.

    Then there will be the insistence on how the commenter Does Not See Race when it comes to animal cruelty. Wrong is wrong.

    And finally, there will be the appeal to common values, viz how we should view animal rights.

    It invariably reminds me of the mess that ethical veganism has become. How we easily overlook the constraints that make drastic dietary changes impossible for many groups of people.

    Oh, I forgot that there will be a final gasp of outrage: YOU don’t know what causes I support. I do a lot for black people, and my conscience is clear.

    I’m sure we have all fallen into these traps. I did not make the connection re Michael Vick until I read a few discussions, including on Marlise’s Facebook page. It’s been sitting with me all these days, and I am ashamed of how I did not get there by myself.

  7. Radha Avatar
    Radha

    I often see commenters being willing to jump with both feet into arguments about how we should be able to hold both thoughts—that cruelty to animals is bad, and systemic racism is also bad. And the line of thought will eventually, and tediously, always lead to how the commenter much prefers animals to humans because the former embody a sort of genuine love akin to purity and virtue, without any shade of dissembling.

    Then there will be the insistence on how the commenter Does Not See Race when it comes to animal cruelty. Wrong is wrong.

    And finally, there will be the appeal to common values, viz how we should view animal rights.

    It invariably reminds me of the mess that ethical veganism has become. How we easily overlook the constraints that make drastic dietary changes impossible for many groups of people.

    Oh, I forgot that there will be a final gasp of outrage: YOU don’t know what causes I support. I do a lot for black people, and my conscience is clear.

    I’m sure we have all fallen into these traps. I did not make the connection re Michael Vick until I read a few discussions, including on Marlise’s Facebook page. It’s been sitting with me all these days, and I am ashamed of how I did not get there by myself.

  8. Alexis Klein Avatar
    Alexis Klein

    After a reread and deeper thoughts. Black people are treated as less than animals. Black people are treated as “well they deserved what they got” when they’re murdered by police. Black people are blamed for being victims in the criminal justice system. When it’s been proven that racist internal bias exists. I’m guilty of being silent. Black people get a lower quality of education because I and other white people think that schools should be funded by property taxes. When neighborhoods where Black people have a lower property value because of redlining. I am guilty of being silent. Black people with a uterus have a higher mortality rate and I’m guilty of not supporting them. Black people don’t get the shares, tears, and sadness that animals get. Because animals are seen as more innocent than Black people.

    I am a part of the guilty white society for staying silent.

  9. Claire Avatar
    Claire

    I am thinking through the facts that you point out here Marlise. It is true – at least in the US we are quicker to cry over dog abuse than we are to scream loudly about the sanctioned murder of Black people by p0lice, the cages of children at the border. And here’s what I suspect. It is not hard to see animals as “innocent.” They supposedly can’t think, and cannot form intentions very well. (Ha, ask my dog about that). So a harmed dog is an innocent who did not do anything to deserve ill treatment, injury and death. Now. As someone we all know and love might say, “Pivot to race.” Let’s consider a justification we hear in response to crimes against Black people: “Police wouldn’t bother them if they didn’t break the law.” Every time I hear that – and it comes around often – I think “Sure. Blame the victim.” Here’s the thing – deep inside every white person is a little voice that says “Well, he probably deserved it.” That is, he could not possibly have been innocent or blameless. Because if he were innocent and blameless, the disgusting history of slavery, policing, red-lining, and bad medical care, and the disequilibrium of the economic system would never have happened. Right? Part of our power as white people is to hold that little voice in there, and listen to its complaints. The presumption of guilt is unconstitutional. When it’s applied to white people.

  10. Deb Chymiak-Isanhart Avatar
    Deb Chymiak-Isanhart

    I read this last night and needed a bit to put my thoughts together. Throughout this country’s history BIPOC, particularly Black ppl, have been described as non-human, as animals. But, the lack of response to the types of posts Marlise has written about, shows that wht ppl think of them as LESS than animals. The Sarah McLachlan Humane Society video draws more tears, and I would guess more funding, than stories about family separation at the border. Imagine one of the nonprofits working at the border, creating a similar commercial to raise money. Would people be outraged as many were in the 60s when they viewed news footage of dogs and fire hoses being used on Black protesters? Or would they shrug and say the “crime” requires punishment. Or would their outage be about watching those images in the midst of their favorite television show.

    I have also been thinking about the responses of some of my fellow walkers regarding the non-redemption of Michael Vick. I saw that reaction a lot when the dog fighting was first exposed. Think about that in light of how easily many look at what is happening at the border or in the cages of mass incarceration, and say of ICE or prison guards — “They are only doing their job.” There were few calls to treat Vick with civility. But, we are called to treat the likes of Mitch McConnell or others in the administration with civility while they are dining out.

  11. Marlise Avatar
    Marlise

    So, we have some comments essentially on the first small paragraph I wrote. No thoughts on the pivot? We literally have a society that bestows “honors” on those that steal and harm people. We have ceremonies and badges for those perpetuate a version of slavery. But sure, let’s make sure that we point out we are abstaining from conversation about Michael Vick while still feeling some way about the dogs.

  12. Laura Berwick Avatar
    Laura Berwick

    Okay, yes. I’m having a hard time organizing my thoughts on this linearly, or even coherently. I’m appalled at what a person can get away with and still be admired and honored. Mostly I feel this way about white people, it seems. But not always.

    Realistically, the man is a talented athlete. Amazingly talented people aren’t all paragons of virtue. Robert Frost was apparently a huge asshole, by some accounts. And if that was the talent he focused on, maybe football was the he best of a limited field of career possibilities, and do I want to e courage myself to wish anyone’s life to be ruined after they’ve served their time? I mean, if no new criminal offenses arise, isn’t the debt paid?

    Maybe a bigger better issue to decry is how much we love our gladitorial games, even while we’ve replaced blood letting with brain damage. Maybe an even bigger issue is how a black man’s options, especially after a criminal trial, ARE so limited. Yet there is no limit to the ways we turn black bodies into grist for the capitalist mill. And as Marlise says, where’s THAT outrage.

    Here in this group, I know we have it. But society as a whole absolutely is caring about dogs more than black and brown people. I honestly can’t say that I care on a moral level about who the NFL honors. I care more about who they tear down and why, and who we pay them to elevate a little, so the rich (white) owners stay rich, and why we love sportsball of various sorts enough to make millionaires out of (albeit a very few) players, when people go hungry and most jobs don’t pay a living wage.

    And after all of that, I am still pretty angry about the dogs. No linear thought progression. No conclusions or closure. More like being in the middle of a sticky web of confusion. I feel lots of ways about this.

  13. Alexis Klein Avatar
    Alexis Klein

    This is also why I don’t make comments about Michael Vick. As a white person I am learning that I listen to Black people as it is not my place to say anything. His repercussions will be far and above what a white person would get because he is a Black man.

    White people caring more about animals than human beings, before I meant white people and now I mean Black people, has always irritated me. You explain well as to why.

  14. Cathy Avatar
    Cathy

    Yes…. and the NFL nominating Vick for the honor? Let’s hold them responsible too, in a big big way. Vast amounts of money made off of mostly black men who end up destroying their bodies. I circulated one of those FB petitions to stop Vick from being recognized because he should never be made into a leader role again after what he did – there’s no justification, ever, for that level of cruelty. And I can see differently about the bigger picture thanks to your persepective.

  15. Varda L Avatar
    Varda L

    Yes. I realized when I started in this group that my contributions towards animal welfare were out of line with the real needs of our society. I’m stepping that back so I can refocus.

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