To fear is human, and we hope for courage. However, it’s been said that “courage is not the absence of fear, it is the management of it.” Thus far, 2020 has been a year filled with anxiety, uncertainty, fear, and tragedy, but this might the year in which we began to manage our fear and display the courage for change.
COVID-19’s Unintended Consequence
We are the most technologically advanced nation in the world during the most technologically advanced time known to man. Yet, with a lack of preparedness upon the advent of the predictable and unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, all the technology in the world could provide no better prescription for preserving our health and ensuring our survival than the most primitive of precautions. Social distancing. Staying at home. Sheltering in place.
As we retreated from the invisible external threat into our dwellings, we became spectators to our own lives – cohabitating with our loved ones and contemplating our thoughts in a world gone virtual. We huddled with our preconceptions, misconceptions, biases, prejudices and racism, with only ourselves upon which to inflict these internal maladies.
Inadvertently, this period of self-isolation caused a period of self-reflection, and what emerged from this global introspection was an increased awareness of our mortality and a heightened sense of our humanity. Paradoxically, our collective lack of in-person contact created a greater personal connectivity, increased our collective consciousness and perhaps served as a catalyst for courage.
Two Plagues, One Nation
During the isolation of the pandemic, we witnessed glimpses of humanity at its finest. Not simply individual sacrifice for self-preservation, but selfless acts, a sense of community and sympathy for the greater good. “We are all in this together” became not only a familiar refrain but an aspiration. We gained a greater understanding of the meaning of the word “humanity” – as a noun to define us, an adjective to describe us, and perhaps even as a verb to incite positive change among us. We have endured and overcome pandemics throughout our history, and the present pandemic will be no exception.
But throughout our history, we have been under siege from another invisible enemy with which we must contend – the virulent scourge of bias, prejudice, racism and injustice. This virus is not unique to Americans, but it has persisted since the nation’s advent. And despite occasional remedies being administered to those seeking care, it has yet to be eradicated because of a failure of will by its hosts.
Upon emergence from our isolation, and upon the senseless death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement officials in Minneapolis, we witnessed inhumanity at its worse. Proof that, although we should all be in this together, we are not, because there are those among us who will not permit it. On the heels of our reentry into society and our attempts at a “new normal,” we once again witnessed brutality against an unarmed African American male by those entrusted to protect and serve all within the community.
Such egregious conduct is an affront to justice and equality and is antithetical to the values that our nation espouses. We unequivocally witnessed a grave injustice against George Floyd, but in a larger sense we witnessed a reversion to the “normal” that has sowed the seeds of social unrest for decades. Our collective hope was that our nature and our nation had progressed since the Red Summer in Chicago (1919), Greenwood Avenue District in Tulsa (1921), Rosewood in Florida (1923), and other racial atrocities that followed the Spanish Flu pandemic a century ago. Unfortunately, in many ways, we have not.
Since the recorded arrival of enslaved blacks at Point Comfort (1619), throughout slavery, through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement and continuing today, this callous disregard for justice, liberty and equality is the root of our nation’s discontent and unfulfilled promise. What we witnessed with the death of George Floyd was emblematic of what African Americans and conscientious others are reminded of daily – the contradiction between the nation that we are, the nation that we believe ourselves to be and the nation that we should aspire to become.
Civil Unrest Toward Social Justice – Logical and Moral
In Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau surmised that civil unrest in response to social injustice is predictable, is morally imperative, and is deeply rooted in the precepts for which say we stand – among them liberty, justice and equality. Thomas Paine noted, “I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.” As such, civil unrest on the path to legal and social progress is not without precedent, and as illustrated in the Civil Rights Movement of the ‘50s and ‘60s, its iconic leaders and locations echo its courageous significance – Marshall. King. Parks. Montgomery. Birmingham. Selma.
What is indisputable is that the quest for social justice is a continuum defined by the arc of the moral universe – advocated by lawyers and others, with courage as the common denominator, advanced by conviction and consensus but never quelled or placated. This ongoing effort for justice is illustrated in the countless protests of the numerous senseless killings of unarmed black men and women throughout the past decades – including in 2014 alone Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Michael Brown, Ezell Ford, Dante Parker, Michelle Cusseaux, Laquan McDonald, George Mann, Tanisha Anderson, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, Rumain Brismon and Jerame Reid. However, none have garnered the sustained outrage and call for action resulting from the death of George Floyd.
Ostriches are the largest and fastest birds on Earth, but they can’t fly. Those who take issue with this fact may also assert that there is no systemic racism in the United States. In light of reality, such an assertion is very much akin to the myth of ostriches burying their heads in the sand. Upon review of the aforementioned names and the countless others unlisted (or not captured on video), the illogical conclusion of some is that these deaths were simply the product of unfortunate circumstances, with no improper motive or intention ascribed thereto.
Some may also subscribe to the myth that the unrest is being caused by elements attempting to sow discord into an American culture that has no need for reform, that “this too shall pass,” and that those protesting these injustices should “shut-up, sit-down and be content with the status-quo.” That conclusion is no more acceptable to those committed to social justice than it was to those who arrived upon these shores four-hundred years ago to forge a nation.
History illustrates that discord is most often sown internally, not by outside agitation. Yet it often takes tragic and traumatic events for this discord to manifest itself into action and change – such as the killing of Emmett Till (1955), the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955), the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church (1963), and Bloody Sunday (1965).
The truth is that there is no logical rationale for a senseless death, nor any continuous series of unfortunate consequences that would explain such deaths. None of the civil unrest in pursuit of social justice would occur without courage, and the experience of COVID-19 could be considered the most recent catalyst for the collective courage required for societal change. The logical conclusion and hope is that the death of George Floyd will ignite in each of us that sense of justice, fairness and equality that we espouse and that has often been absent in the words and deeds of many Americans.
As millions unite globally in peaceful protest for social justice, a consensus is built and a moral critical mass is formed. One must realize, as Dr. King stated, that a “riot is the language of the unheard,” and that the manner of these protests is peaceful and the objective is to be heard. As today’s moral indignation is transferred into tomorrow’s tangible progress, and the underprivileged and marginalized are displaying the courage to be heard, those living in privilege must realize the power and voice of privilege, and should display the courage to assist others and to ensure that others are heard. Such is the nature of our Republic, even if not as originally intended.
Our Challenges, Our Role
Our challenges as a society are many, but they are not insurmountable. The role of the legal profession in particular in addressing these challenges is simply this – lawyers must not only maintain their role as guardians of the rule of law, but embrace their obligation as agents of positive change. Lawyers take an oath to faithfully discharge the duties of their profession, and they have an obligation to promote social justice in the name of the laws that they uphold.
Issues presented yesterday yet heard today are too important to devolve into a law school exam. As expressed by the recent protests following George Floyd’s death, civil rights must be respected, civil liberties must be protected, and abuse by law enforcement must not be tolerated. Purposefully false debates intended to distract and distort should be abandoned. For example, if Blacks are alive, and if all lives matter, don’t Black lives matter? Setting aside this syllogism, inaccurate presumptions must be abandoned and underlying challenges present before George Floyd’s tragic death must be addressed in an effort to create broader substantive change. Beyond embracing diversity and inclusion, lawyers must courageously advocate to address these issues.
Lawyers must also be a part of courageous solutions. Education is a key to success, public schools are the primary method of educating most Americans, and these schools deserve proper funding and resources. Every American should have access to affordable quality health care. Every community deserves the opportunity to develop economically.
To address our challenges, it is also worth noting that faith and prayer have also been essential for many in enduring the COVID-19 pandemic and in summoning the courage required for change. That same faith – felt in the days when hope unborn had died – has been integral to the perseverance of countless Americans imbued with the belief that this nation will overcome its history of injustice, unfairness, inequity and racial prejudice, and fulfill its promise of a union more perfect, with its people on a path to perhaps becoming a race more human. Onward.
Paul K. Stafford has been a business litigator for approximately 25 years, and has been committed to social justice his entire life. He is a Past-President of the Dallas Bar Association and the J.L. Turner Legal Association, is a Director with the State Bar of Texas African-American Lawyers Section, and currently serves on the State Bar of Texas Diversity Committee.