Coiffed Miami Lakes is forced to confront racism in the wake of George Floyd murder | Opinion
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police, the Republican-led coiffed town of Miami Lakes is being forced to confront racism.
The outrage over Floyd’s death has come to shed new light on the racism lurking — sometimes veiled, others not — behind the idyllic facade of lush canopies, year-round bursts of flowers, and local pride.
“Growing beautifully” is the town’s motto — and last Sunday’s unprecedented Black Lives Matter protest put the sentiment to the test.
Are we growing beautifully inclusive, too?
Not by a long shot.
I live here, and as I walked to the protest, Miami Herald credentials in view and coronavirus mask in place, my thoughts kept returning to the time I bought my house in 2000.
Back then, Miami Lakes was still an unincorporated village, a mostly Democratic Anglo stronghold, home to former governor and then U.S. Senator Bob Graham and everything Don Shula, from the hotel to the restaurants, and golf club.
I had lived here for years, but the new home development of Mediterranean architecture, barrel-tiled roofs and arches, called out to me. I would later learn that the architect, a Cuban-American, had been inspired by the same book I was reading, “The Old Houses of Cuba.”
I wanted in, but there was a 100-person wait list.
Alas, I ran into another journalist buying here and he put in a good word for me. The salesman, it turned out, was the same guy who had sold me my Graham Companies townhouse. I got bumped up the list.
If a contract falls through, you’re in, I was told.
Shortly after, I got the call: A Cuban-American doctor had canceled his contract because he had learned he would have African American neighbors.
Racist jerk, I said. His loss, my gain.
Easiest and best decision I ever made was to live on a block as diverse as Miami.
Unfortunately, not enough has changed in 20 years when it comes to race.
When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, a Cuban-American neighbor walked into my house and proclaimed in Spanish: “Do we have to put up with a black woman in the White House now?”
I made sure she would never set foot in my house again.
With the divisive Donald Trump presidency supported by such supremacists, the divisions on issues like race and immigration run even deeper in town.
My diverse block is an exception, not the rule in a city of 30,000, more than 80% Hispanic, mostly white Hispanic, and just over 3% black, according to U.S. Census data. Another telling marker of separatism: Although every public school is A-rated, many people choose to send their children to religious, charter, and private schools.
If you’re not Republican, the odds of getting elected to a local, state, or federal post aren’t very good. State Rep. Cindy Polo, a Democrat who grew up in Miami Lakes and lives in Miramar, is the only recent exception, and some say, a sign the town is changing demographically.
But, as Republican Florida House Speaker José R. Oliva, a resident, said to the Miami Laker last year in a story about Gov. Ron DeSantis’ inauguration: “We’re all [in leadership] singing from the same hymn book.”
Anti-police brutality protest
And so, as soon as last Sunday’s anti-police brutality protest was announced, people’s personal and group social media pages, as well as the town’s I Love Miami Lakes — most widely used for boosterism and political photo-ops — became more heated forums than a CNN town hall.
Debate raged on between the “this is the card the left uses to advance their agenda” and the refreshing “let’s open our hearts and listen” side.
A lot of the discussion was healthy, but plenty used dog-whistle language.
A woman complained that the 100-person Black Lives Matter protest — which didn’t start until 2 p.m. and was contained to a corner of Miami Lakes Drive where traffic flowed as usual for a Sunday — made her miss mass.
Some racists even invoke His name to justify their prejudice.
A lawyer who bills himself as a “for the people” type of guy posted on Facebook a photo of himself pointing his gun at the camera, threatening to shoot anyone who dared to enter his gated community.
In his twisted head, Black Lives Matter equals crime.
Residents like him and some town leaders behaved as if an invasion of the body snatchers carrying blow torches were afoot, not the peaceful protest that it was — and surprise! — one supported by lots of Miami Lakers who walked, rode bikes, and drove by honking their horns.
That was an abuelita in the backseat of a Mercedes-Benz giving a thumbs up.
The only elected leader who showed up to the protest was Polo.
Two councilmen — Josh Dieguez and vice mayor Nelson Rodriguez — went on both the I Love Miami Lakes and Miami Lakes Residents Facebook pages to assure residents that the police would be out in force, protect city property and residents, and ensure that the protest would remain peaceful.
At first, Dieguez called for respect for the right to protest.
But then, after some push back from the MAGA crowd, he advised that the best thing to do was to try to keep the demonstration small by not liking or commenting on posts about the protest so that the Facebook algorithms didn’t click in and show the post to more people.
Rodriguez, who had not said anything in support of BLM’s right to protest, chimed in to say the same thing: Ignore, don’t talk about it, and it will be small.
“Don’t give them the attention they’re looking for,” Rodriguez wrote. (He later told the Herald he regretted the comment.)
Residents pushed back.
“How is this comment useful? Especially by a town leader? We should be giving them the attention they deserve,” a man named Alex wrote. “It is the most American thing they are doing exercising their constitutional right to bring attention to an issue that has been poisoning our society...We have a close community here and this negative sentiment should not be what is reflected by our leaders.”
He tagged Mayor Manny Cid, but got no answer.
They seem tone deaf to the times.
From Minneapolis to Miami Lakes
There may be 1,785 miles between Minneapolis and Miami Lakes, but the same principles of social justice apply.
Racists, big-time and pitiful ones, don’t see themselves as ugly.
That’s why George Floyd’s killer felt so comfortable, in the presence of other Minneapolis police officers and even witnesses videotaping him, holding a knee to the neck of a man for eight minutes and forty-six seconds until life left him.
You’re killing him, people were saying, and these police officers didn’t care.
They saw their badge as a license to kill under the disguise of law and order.
Racists are indifferent to the trail of dehumanization their acts and their words leave behind, and have left behind during centuries of killings and disenfranchisement of our fellow black countrymen and women.
This is why the United States is reeling.
This is why Miami Lakes needed a Black Lives Matter protest.
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
