End The Division

Originally published July 11, 2016

Let's talk about hate. There's a lot of it in this world and the month or so has been filled with tragedies. The worst mass shooting in United States history occurred in a gay club in Orlando this June. In Baghdad, this week two hundred and fifty people were killed in terrorist attacks, and suicide car bombs were detonated in Jordan, Yemen, and even outside of Islam’s second holiest site, the Prophet's Mosque. In Louisiana and Michigan, two African American men were shot and killed by law enforcement officers abusing their power. In Dallas eleven officers and two civilians were shot by a sniper, resulting in the tragic death of seven people.

Unfortunately, violence like this seems to be becoming more and more common. The world seems stuck in an endless cycle of hatred and division. After each act of violence the world witnesses, society chooses sides and places blame. Muslims are blamed, or cops, or protesters, or blacks, or people with guns or people without guns. Instead of the country and the world joining together to grieve and address real issues we contribute to the issues by dividing ourselves and treating others with judgment and prejudice. While this hatred and violence affect many groups, in this article I am going to focus on Muslims, blacks, and the police as they have been impacted by this week's example of violence.

The reality is, Muslims are not terrorists, yet many continue accusing them of hating whites or Christians or Americans. Terrorists are political extremists that act out of hate, not in the name of faith. By blaming Muslims or people of Middle Eastern descent for terrorism, we only feed into the hatred that is the root cause of violence.

We also can't seem to be able to find a way to address police brutality and discrimination without accusing all law enforcement officers of being discriminatory or accusing African Americans of “making up” prejudice when it isn't there. There is a lot of racial injustice that African Americans and other minorities face and that cannot be ignored. Blacks are not “making up” the fact that they are given longer sentences for the same crime as whites, or that they face more violence at the hands of those who should be protecting them, or that officers who use unnecessary force are often not charged with crimes or fired. These issues need to be addressed in how we train our police, our judges, and how we educate children of all races so that this does not continue. However the “fuck the police” attitude does nothing to help this case. Many officers, in fact probably most, are honestly trying to protect everyone and do their job. Viewing them as an enemy only creates further division and tension between law enforcement and civilians, especially white officers and black civilians. The danger that these officers face is real, the Dallas shooting is a tragically perfect example of that. Those officers died and were injured protecting people who protested peacefully against injustice.

One of my favorite quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.” we do not need more hate and division in this world. Instead blaming Muslims for brutal terrorist attacks, we should be offering our aid and compassion to the refugees fleeing those attacks and working with the Middle Eastern militaries fighting terrorists on their own soil. Instead of saying “fuck the police”, we should be asking “what can be changed in professional training and in media portrayal to end systematic injustice?” I challenge each and every one of us to be compassionate towards one another, regardless of any differences of race, religion, economic status, gender, sexual orientation or political views. Open up the conversation about these issues and fight for policy changes without categorized others. Teach your children to embrace diversity. Remember that a little bit of extra love in the world may not solve all of our problems, but it's definitely a start.