Whose Knee is on George Floyd’s Neck?

In an accurate and grim rendering of racism in America, a white cop kneels passively on a black man’s neck. It’s easy to condemn cops because their power is lethal but so is the power wielded by educators, CEOs, hospitals, and lawyers. That cop could be a teacher, healthcare administrator, business executive or judge. He’s every smug white liberal who thinks they’re “woke” and has a Black Lives Matter sign to prove it. Whose knee is on George Floyd’s neck? Mine, and yours.

In White Fragility, Robin Diangelo says that “white progressives cause the most daily damage to people of color.” Although racism is everywhere, two years in Seattle has confirmed this premise and provided me with a mind-blowing crash course in systemic failures. In a region hailed as the most progressive place in the country, I will get shamed for calling someone “black” instead of “person of color” while our black students fail in record numbers and are pushed to housing in the margins of the city. Last year, 90.5% of white students met state standards in math compared to 65.3% of black students. With its stunning history of redlining now “off the books,” people of color are continually driven to live in the southern parts of the city because real estate prices here support the culture of white wealth. Amazon is largely responsible for this. Jeff Bezos is a scrawny guy but his knee weighs heavy on the neck of George Floyd because Amazon makes billions and pays zero in federal taxes. That cop had a gun but Bezos has the power to make people suffer for a lifetime. Big white…