One apology, millions to go.

Sunday, June 14th, 2020

From the video (uploaded by @jaimetoons on Twitter) of the event, because of course there’s video.

This is one of those follow-ups where I said back at the screen “oh yeah, of course she is.” Maybe several times.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The CEO of a cosmetics company issued an apology Sunday after a video was widely shared online showing her and her husband confronting a man and threatening to call police because he stenciled “Black Lives Matter” in chalk on his San Francisco property.

“There are not enough words to describe how truly sorry I am for being disrespectful to him last Tuesday when I made the decision to question him about what he was doing in front of his home,” Alexander said in a statement. “I should have minded my own business.”

Also, apparently at least one cosmetics distributor has cut ties with her company over the furor. That might hurt a bit. There are days when I think this uncomfortable nearly one-on-one ceremony of shaming and exposure has to happen over and over and over again in neightborhoods as fancy as SF’s Pacific Heights or as blue collar as suburban Pittsburgh…or Atlanta. Daily. Hourly. Every time it happens.

This means that maybe we’ll have a better and more just society in…80 years or so? That realization of “I should have minded my own business” I would hasten to edit toward “I should have offered this person the respect he deserved as a human being.”

It sure seems like we have to embark on major, systemic change to get this done more entirely in our lifetimes.