Being kind to one another doesn’t merely have to be a cliche. It can be much more. As we watch all of the protests for racial justice in the wake of the tragedy in Minnesota, one can only hope that beyond achieving lasting impact in the form of substantive policy change, we’re able to foster more camaraderie among our people.
In the wake of tragedies, we unite and we unite as one. Only then will we be able to have the most optimal and maximum impact on applying pressure on our policymakers to actual enact legislation that creates transformative change.
The unity that we’re seeing on display in the form of these peaceful demonstrations is the spirit of the American way. What’s on display is the melting pot that is America. Folks from all different backgrounds, regardless of class, social strata, race or ethnicity, are uniting and expressing their freedoms of assembly and speech to promote the type of change we need as a society to achieve true racial justice.
This is of course a topic that isn’t foreign to our history as a nation. Although a sensitive one, it is one that is so critically important. In order to accomplish substantive results that actually have a real-time effect on our police force’s treatment of members of the minority community we need to ensure all of our voices are heard.
Having those voices heard in separate fragmented blocs is not nearly as powerful as having them heard in the hundreds or even in the thousands, in unison. It is so inspiring to see the crowds and crowds of people, especially those representing the younger generations energized and motivated by this shared and common objective.
But America is also so divided. It’s unfortunate; but it’s also a reality. And it need not be that way. Being able to come together around a noble and altruistic mission should compel us all to forget about our differences. This is an opportune moment for us all to coalesce around a mission that’s importance transcends any differences we might feel or might be visible to the objective eye.
Beyond the efforts to continue peacefully demonstrating for this shared important objective, let’s use this opportunity to come together as a nation. What unites us is far more in substance and part than what divides us. Our differences should take a back-seat to the broader mission at play. And that mission is to enact the sort of substantive and transformative policy change that will have a constructive impact on our lawmakers enacting the type of laws that will ensure racial justice and subsequent harmony.
Helen Schifter is a former arbitrage trader on Wall Street