Page 10 - Nebraska Report Nov Dec 2020

Racism Is a Problem

Only Whites Can Solve

vice’ to the “setbacks” and the “dispari- or mad about this treatment? (Not to
ties” suffered by the Black community, mention that our ancestors and their de-
though, Mr. Dun promptly proceeds to scendants were cheated out of billions
next deliver an all-too-familiar public of dollars of created wealth that went to
scolding of “the more strident voices enrich a white elite.)
advocating on behalf of the Black com- To hear from a non-Black, career-
munity”—making clear his displeasure law enforcement official that important
with those who dwell on the frustra- opportunities for “finding solutions and
tion and anger and whose “continued
focus on divisive rhetoric and criticism,
rather than finding commonalities of Only White people
experience and solutions, is counter-
productive.” He then cites a host of can end the problem
statistics focused on above-average law of racism. Our job as
enforcement service calls and crime
rates in the African American commu- people of color is to
nity. Resting his case, Dun concludes
that, “Hurling accusations of racism or figure out how to deal
‘victim blaming’ whenever someone
A’Jamal-Rashad Byndon, cites such facts does not contribute with a racist society
to solving these societal challenges;
Community Advocate for rather, it deepens societal divides, that, wherever we go,
Real Justice obfuscates the problem and ignores whatever we do, never
reality.” The focus of our activism, he
Weysan Dun, a retired Special Agent says, should be “on finding solutions gives us any quarter...
of the FBI, authored a guest editorial and common goals rather than dwell-
in the Omaha World-Herald (11-1- ing on historic injustices and making
2020) under the title “Citing facts and hyperbolic accusations.” common goals” with Whites are being
acknowledging crime data is not White Let’s back up a second and take a lost when strident voices advocating on
supremacy”. The op-ed opens with his hard look at what Mr. Dun is saying to behalf of the Black community focus
acknowledging that there is “frustration the Black community. on divisive rhetoric and America’s rac-
and anger” in Black communities over We live in a country that has ist past is, frankly, silly.
being “ignored and marginalized”, with practiced over 400 years of slavery, And Dun’s high-handed recita-
each advance toward equality seeming- Jim Crow segregation, education and tion of crime statistics among African
ly “followed by a setback or new mani- economic discrimination, disenfran- Americans reeks exactly of the “victim
festation of inequality”. He goes on to chisement, income and wealth dispar- blaming” he claims to refute. Crime
state: “The larger community must not ity, disproportionate conviction and in the African American community is
only recognize the pain caused by the incarceration, and hate crime violence understood by many as a sociological
continuing inequality faced by Blacks, against African Americans, much of manifestation of poverty… And after
but also must make a concerted effort which continues up to this very day. four centuries of systemic oppression
to alleviate the disparities of resources And now, after centuries of this histori- and exploitation, whose fault is it that
and seek solutions.” cal trauma, we’re being told that we Black America is poor?
Having paid the obligatory ‘lip ser- don’t have the right to be angry, upset Much of what so aggravates me

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 NE REPORT, P. 10 continued on page 13