George Floyd, Tou Thao, and the Parable of Our Times

What it means to be an Asian man in a Black-and-white conflict.

By Richard Lee

A white man, keeping a black man down.

A black man, dying under the weight of his oppressor.

An angry crowd, sidelined and unable to step in to save.

An Asian man, refusing to intervene.

As the news of George Floyd’s death emerged, as the video footage was posted and viewed millions of times, it was unsettling to watch the life of a(nother) black man taken so needlessly.

But, for me, this one felt different. There was something else that was unsettling about it and it took me a bit of time to realize what it was that shook me. Eventually, I realized that what unsettled me about this video was the Asian face staring back at me, while a murderous act of a racist system was happening mere feet behind where he was standing. Tou Thao is the police officer who is doing crowd control in this video and is one of the four police officers who have been fired by Minneapolis police.

Daniel Hill, in his book White Awake, uses Rev. Julian DeShazier’s definition of privilege as “the ability to walk away.”

I was the Asian man in this video. Refusing to intervene. Conveniently avoiding the conflict, which appears to be so clearly a Black-and-white issue. Not needing to be involved in the messiness of the race conversation in America.

I am the Asian man in this video. I still have the ability to look away. I still have the ability to walk away. I still have the ability to go through my life and never fear that this sort of abuse and violence will happen to me. Or my son.

I can walk away.

But, I’m trying not to.

I’m trying to listen and learn from my black and brown brothers and sisters. I’m trying to correct my misunderstandings and prejudices of shoulds and should nots. I’m trying to stop. walking. away.

For so many in our country, it is impossible to walk away. For so many in our country, looking at a house under construction, having police serve a no-knock warrant in your home, or even birdwatching in Central Park can lead to conflict and death.

I cannot walk away, because for so many in our country, they are not walking away alive.

George Floyd and Tou Thao serve as a parable of our times.

But I pray that we will rewrite the narrative of that parable.

“We didn’t walk away. We stepped in.”

This was originally published on Medium.

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Richard Lee is a sought-after speaker on issues of justice and the church. He serves as the global officer of public engagement with International Justice Mission and is the host of The Pursuit with Richard Lee podcast, featuring unfiltered conversations with faith leaders about their journey to pursue God. His talk “Slavery Still Exists. Here’s How to End It.” can be found on TED.com.