Someone I know posted a cartoon on Facebook the other day, complaining about how red in the face she gets after working out.  The cartoon depicted the dreadful CHALLENGES experienced by people with pale complexions.

I’m sure she thought it was cute, her challenges with pale skin.

I wonder if I can express, in simple terms, why in 2015 I find this cartoon so offensive?

Oh, wait, here it is!

Carlos Alcis, 43; Jordan Baker, 26; Sandra Bland, 28; Rumain Brisbon, 34; Michael Brown, 18; Miriam Carey, 34; McKenzie Cochran, 25; John Crawford III, 22; Reynaldo Cuevas, 20; DePayne Middleton Doctor, 49; Jonathan Ferrell, 24; Deion Fludd, 17; Ezell Ford, 25; Eric Garner, 43; Oscar Grant, 22; Freddie Gray, 25; Kimani Gray, 16; Mya Hall, 27; Cynthia Hurd, 54; Larry Eugene Jackson, Jr.,32; Susie Jackson, 87; Prince Jones Jr., 25; India Kager, 28; Ethel Lance, 70; Andy Lopez, 13; Trayvon Martin, 17; Natasha McKenna, 37; Dante Parker, 36; Clementa Pinckney, 41; Kajieme Powell, 25; Tamir Rice, 12; Timothy Russell, 43; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Walter Scott, 50; Daniel Simmons Sr., 74; Sharonda Coleman Singleton, 45; Yvette Smith, 47; Myra Thompson, 59; Johnnie Kamahi Warren, 43; Victor White, 22; Malissa Williams, 30.

These US citizens were killed because they did not have pale skin.  Here.  In the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave.  Most of them had committed no crime whatsoever, other than the “crime” of not being white.  Some of them had committed minor offenses, traffic errors, or had mental health issues, but none of these offenses are punishable by death.  Some of them were in the wrong place at the wrong time, running away from a crime committed by someone else.  And some were killed at a prayer meeting at their church, killed because they did not have pale skin.

Maybe what offends, irritates, and embarrasses me the most about the pale skin cartoon is that it displays a complete unawareness of the privilege of race.   No.  Worse than that.  It displays a pathetic, moronic, elitist mindset, which smacks of contempt at the worst, or cultural illiteracy at the least.  There is no excuse for this.  We can be more aware of violence against people of color today, because now we have cameras.  Ta-Nehisi Coates said it best:  “The violence is not new, it’s the cameras that are new.” For the past year, especially since the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, we have had plenty to watch. It is time to take a stand together to make our communities, streets, churches, and towns safer for everyone.  We can and we must be awake to what is going on around us.  We are all in this together.

I urge you to work for justice.  Get informed and get involved. Peace.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”-Edmund Burke