Whites in Protest

By Bryan Jenkins

It’s hard to close my eyes, with all that’s been going on in America these last couple of years. I turn the lights off, hoping the t.v. will lull me to sleep. But protests over police brutality still keep me up.

We Baby Boomers have gotten uncomfortably used to a lifetime of them… Watts in ’65… Detroit in ’67… Rodney King in ’92… Eric Gardner in 2014, Ferguson in 2016… George Floyd in 2020… Tyre Nichols in 2023… and a wealth of others in between… always over police brutality against a black person… so many, I can’t even name them all. But, what’s got me surprised and awake is the millions of WHITE people protesting – with signs, t-shirts and voices exclaiming “Black Lives Matter”!   

     35 years in T.V. news… I thought I’d seen everything! But white people, en masse, pounding the pavement for black folks! WOW! …  seems like a whole lot of people are waking up to the idea that, as a nation, we sink or swim TOGETHER. We’ve seen NFL commissioner Roger Goodell apologize on national T.V. for ignoring black athletes protesting police brutality. We saw Republican Senator Mitt Romney get “woke” – marching with protesters – actually, joining in the chant “Black lives Matter!” 

     In the afterglow of America’s first Black president, and four dark years of a not-so-closeted white supremacist president, the sun rose on a new white president whose weak campaign got a winning breath of life FROM BLACK VOTERS! Yes, it appears Black lives DO matter! 

    New sentiments fueled the grudging demolition of Confederate monuments across the country. We saw Confederate flags removed from state buildings and banned from NASCAR… NASCAR!… one of America’s last major sports still basking in “good-ol-boy-ness”.  

Alas, the power of black America’s growth and greenbacks finally exposed the economic liabilities posed by propping up “white privilege”. 

     Sadly, not all white folks seem willing to part with THEIR privilege to guarantee EVERYONE’S EQUAL PRIVILEGE! Affirmative Action policies, initiated by institutions trying to right the wrongs of the past, suffered a national smackdown by a conservative white backlash. It’s put Corporate America under siege, over Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies. Legislation like Florida’s “Stop Woke Act” imposes a “red light”  on teaching uncomfortable truths about American history… truths that make, um… white folks uncomfortable!  

     That effort, mimicked in other states,  is pushed by grass roots groups with names like ‘Moms for Liberty’. Their crusade?… to deny your liberty to read books they don’t like! Apparently not all Americans are ready or willing to deliver on that promise, in our collective pledge of allegiance to: “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all!”  

     I’m further reminded of my school lessons on those immortal words from the U.S. Declaration of independence:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal”. In the 248 years since those words were penned, our nation has committed enormous amounts of blood, tears and wealth, to sell that noble concept to the rest of the civilized world. That our democracy is now being undermined by some of the very people we’ve elected to represent our collective interests – people who are now actively working to de-construct those aforementioned ‘truths’ and deny our interests – is why… I can’t sleep. Can you?   

 Bryan Jenkins is a 35-year veteran of Broadcast Journalism… honored for work ‘on the set’ and ‘in the field’, with two Los Angeles Emmy Awards, a Golden Mike Award and The N.A.B.J.’s National Award of Excellence. Bryan is a captivating storyteller and communicator, having worked as Anchor, Reporter, and Producer in major markets across the country, and contributed to successful media campaigns for local politicians and non-profit organizations. He now resides in southern California, sharing his expertise as a writer and Media Consultant.