The whirlwind of recent days has made it difficult to reflect and to consider the ways in which we can make this a more just and compassionate nation for all — and what we in Virginia can do to make our commonwealth and our communities a more tolerant and welcoming place for all.
Begin at the top, with the straightforward message shouted by protesters from coast to coast: Black lives matter. They matter in our neighborhoods and in our businesses. They matter in our military and in government service. They matter in the classroom, in the board room and in the courtroom.
And they need to matter to law enforcement. We have seen — time and time and time again — black citizens robbed by police officers of their constitutional rights, legal protections and even their lives by officers who too often go unpunished for these crimes.
The George Floyd case, which sparked the nationwide protests, is only the latest, but the list of unarmed black people killed by police — to say nothing of black people unfairly and illegally abused due to their skin color — is a national disgrace and abundant fuel for the outrage on American streets this week.
It is imperative that every community take a thorough, independent and sober assessment of their law enforcement agencies to root out racial bias in policing and to forge stronger, mutually beneficial relationships with the minorities communities they serve.
Words are not sufficient. This has to be a sincere process of legitimate reform, affecting fundamental change rather than papering over the problems and hoping it will be sufficient to quell the public’s anger.
No, this is the time for courage. This is a time for action.
And Virginia, due to its history and perhaps in spite of it, should play a pivotal role in these efforts.
Consider the contradiction of being home to Old Point Comfort in Hampton, where the first enslaved Africans set foot on the shores of North America, and to Fort Monroe — located on that same land — where escaped slaves found protection from the Union Army during the Civil War.
The commonwealth often stands at the vanguard of issues involving race, though rarely on the right side of history. But slowly — ever so slowly — Virginia has turned toward justice.
Following the national embarrassment of announcing to the world that he had once dressed in blackface for a dance competition — this, after his yearbook page from medical school prominently featured a deeply racist photo — Gov. Ralph Northam pledged he would devote the remainder of his career to fighting racial inequality.
At the time, his violation of the public trust was so egregious — the hurt he caused so painful — that he seemed to be the wrong person to help Virginia confront its ugly past. However, he has facilitated some meaningful progress since, including the establishment of a Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law.
That body examined laws from 1900 to 1960 and found dozens of instances of “explicitly racist language and segregationist policies” still in effect in Virginia. Legislation drafted by that commission that stripped racist language from laws about public education won unanimous approval by the General Assembly this year.
More work on that front remains. Not only did the commission identify more than 100 problematic laws in its report, but there are a host of state policies — in areas of housing equity, criminal justice, health access and economic opportunity — where Virginia should be lifting up its black residents.
These are only a few of the areas in which black lives have historically mattered less than others, and where the commonwealth must focus its determined efforts to eradicate racism. That’s not enough — not nearly enough — but it’s the type of arduous work we should be eager to take on to ensure equal protection for all under law.
That’s the central cry in American streets this week and where we should devote our efforts if we hope to make this a more perfect union.
