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| 9/11 Memorial --Breezy Point |
This summer, amid the national uproar over the
police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and a long list of others, I spent a Saturday visiting a friend in the
beach resort of Breezy Point, Queens. Wrapped around the western tip of the
Rockaway peninsula, this is an enclave of middle-class homes on sandy
pedestrian paths, festooned with American flags and sprinkled with Trump signs
-- a summer haven for New York City police and firefighters, heavily Irish,
overwhelmingly Catholic, 100 percent white. It was organized as a co-op in
the 1960s, with rules that keep it a closed society, a gated
community.
I
took a walk by the bay, watching children play in the sand and trading wary
nods and glances with the adults. It was a perfect beach day, a time to relax,
but the atmosphere felt subdued and tense. Some residents had recently been involved in a confrontation with protesting Black surfers in nearby Rockaway Beach. Others had faced off with demonstrators in the streets. As a stranger with a beard, I was regarded with caution. The last time I visited,
in 2017, one guy told me I looked like his dog.
This time there was no conversation.
It reminded me of South Africa in 1990, in the
last days of apartheid, just before Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
All those white faces grimly trying to milk their white privilege to the last
drop, knowing that the outside world was turning away from them.
These feelings came back at me this week, watching Lady Gaga's new video, "911."
