by Abby Slagle
Stacey Dash, Luce Institute speaker, author, movie actress, and activist, wrote a well thought out piece on the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the issue of police brutality, published today in the Washington Times Commentary section. Dash cites her childhood growing up in South Bronx, New York City in the 1970's and her racial identity as a source of personal credibility in her experiences with the police force.
Seeing her first dead body on the street at age three, and spending the entirety of her childhood in a neighborhood completely absent of police presence, Dash claims that it is a blessing that officers are now venturing into dangerous neighborhoods to protect citizens.
She argues that the main issue with black culture is an inconsistency of truth. Instead of mothers telling their young children that the police are the enemy and to not trust them, or worse, to be uncooperative and aggressive with officers, they should teach their children to honor and respect those entrusted with upholding public safety, and that officers will not harm them if they cooperate. It is not true that the purpose of the police force is to target African Americans, but it is true that their chosen life mission and career path is to protect American citizens, African Americans included.
She quotes Martin Luther King Jr., "Freedom is the bonus you receive for telling the truth… I do not see how we will ever solve the turbulent problem of race confronting our nation until there is an honest confrontation with it and a willing search for the truth and a willingness to admit the truth when we discover it." In other words, racial tension won't cease to exist in this country until we are honest about the situation- which is that the situation for blacks has improved drastically, just in Dash's lifetime.
Writes Dash:
Even though the #BlackLivesMatter crowd won't admit it, America is a great country for whites and blacks. But blacks continue to hold onto resentment, bitterness, and fear, partially due to the misinformation that black activists — and their "white guilt" counterparts — constantly preach.
The truth is that blacks must stop victimizing themselves and seeing society, the policy force, and whites as the enemies. African Americans are a liberated population- the only thing holding them back is the community that they themselves built, and a culture their activists preach as demeaning, insensitive, and permanently unfair and underprivileged.
Dash argues that if we keep repeating these lies, these statements of inferiority and offensive behavior, the mentality will continue to carry over and intensify generation to generation, and racial tensions won't resolve. Police, aware of aggressive behavior, will be quicker to defend themselves knowing that the citizens they are attempting to protect already resent them. Engaging in deceitful paradigms only widens the gap in an argument where the goal is to bring multiple facets of society together. Instead of #BlackLivesMatter, the mantra for the movement should be "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."
Author Abby Slagle is a 2016 summer intern at CBLPI.