Time for serious reflection

My thoughts are with the Floyd family as I reflect on their loss in Minnesota. As a white individual, I believe this is an important moment in our country.

I have long believed that racism that leads to this type of behavior is a white problem. Yes, the consequences of the problem are routinely visited on our black, brown and other minority communities, but the problem originates, and continues to fester, with a small segment of white America. The rest of us have failed to consistently, and in more meaningful ways, step up to the challenge of policing our own.

When your relative uses the “N” word or similar terms, do you visit them in private, as to not embarrass them, and inform them of how wrong it is to use that word? Do you do it every time? Do we take the time to support African American institutions such as the NAACP and local black-owned businesses?

It is time for white America to seriously reflect on the causes and solutions to the racism we too often fail to confront in meaningful ways. It is time for more than just acknowledging, again, that we have a problem. What has happened in Minnesota should be a call to new action within our community. It will require changes in some of our thinking. Let’s start with the belief that, in addition to this family’s tragedy, killing a black man in Minnesota is injury to us all.

Thomas P. Robinson

Spokane