The protests in reaction to the death of George Floyd were inevitable and understandable. Some consider racism as the original sin of our country, but others consider racism as the very origin of our country. As we celebrate the 400th anniversary of those Europeans who set foot here, we must memorialize the genocide of indigenous peoples, as well as the millions of Africans who perished en route from Africa as enslaved persons.

In so doing, we have to acknowledge the terror we have set upon them historically, through slavery and beyond: The abrupt end to reconstruction; taking away the promised “40 acres and a mule”; the Jim Crow era in which the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments were violated and subverted; the legality of segregation; the original lack of inclusion for most blacks in social security; official redlining by the federal government; the majority of deserving African Americans unable to take advantage of the GI Bill; the increase of mass incarceration in this country. The list goes on.

As the actor portraying Barack Obama in the movie “Barry” said something to the effect that “slavery has been everything.” I was astounded that I hadn’t thought of this myself.

But today we face our president who tweets to all the governors to dominate their states so as not to be seen as “jerks.” He is advocating that the national guard be called out, and even threatening to evoke the Insurrection Act of 1807. This is almost unprecedented and would bring in the active armed forces to take over handling the riots in numerous cities.

To me, this sounds like the beginning of a war, in which our president appears to want to lead our military against our people. We also just learned that President Trump had brought out the National Guard to get rid of peace protesters in DC – by tear gas and rubber bullets, no less – so that he could walk across the street from the White House to have a meaningless photo opportunity in front of the Episcopal Church. As CNN’s Anderson Cooper said, “It was surreal.”

African American protesters have every right to express their pain, their sorrow, their outrage. It is not just about the murder of George Floyd. There are many more examples of police killings and there are too many other inequities today that we cannot afford to ignore: Lack of a good education, decent places to live, intervention against voting rights, the inability to pass wealth onto descendants because of relative poverty, etc.

The United States is the most technologically developed country with the greatest wealth differences between the richest and the poorest, often African Americans. And why is it that most Americans don’t know about or fail to acknowledge the contributions that African Americans have made to this country? We wouldn’t be the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world without African Americans. For the most part their contributed free labor – even for the North – built wealth for America. Slavery connected us to capitalism and our industrial revolution. Thus, unearned white privilege was established. From white privilege came white supremacy. Throughout this history, racism has reigned – a deadly composition of prejudice, race and power.

If we are white, these are our problems to solve. The issues that African Americans have endured over the centuries are mostly ones we caused. We need to be more compassionate, become more knowledgeable, look for opportunities to have a dialogue and have the will to change racism in our institutions and systems.

In the words of James Baldwin: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Amen.

Susan Bowditch is on the faculty of Midcoast Senior College where she teaches about racism and white privilege in the context of African American history.

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