I have struggled with the words. But I feel that I owe it to myself and to you to try and form some cohesive thoughts regarding the crisis that faces our nation.
I am saddened. I am ashamed. Ashamed that those words even had to be said, this crisis should not exist. Ashamed to have grown up in a world that claimed to be so loving and welcoming and embracing, A MELTING POT of diversity—as if. Ashamed to live in a place where racism is AT MOST recognized, yet never addressed.
My heart breaks for the members of the Black community.
BLACK. LIVES. MATTER.
I cannot fathom how people do not understand that. How cops think that it is OK to kill somebodies because of the color of their skin. I believe in good cops but OH do I believe in bad cops too.
Disgusting.
I cannot fathom that this is controversial. That people think it’s political. Every human being deserves to be treated the same way regardless of the color of their skin. Disagreeing with that statement is simply racist. And ignoring police brutality against members of the Black community and all other ways in which the Black community is disproportionately at a disadvantage is racist.
BLACK. LIVES. MATTER.
I will not sit here and pretend that I am perfect. I will not pretend that I have not said things I wish I could take back, that I did not once buy into things I should not have, that I never questioned the white and privileged society I live in, that I did not fail to recognize my privilege for so long. I wish that I could smack my younger self. I wish that I could take it all back. But I can’t.
I will not sit here and try to take away from the voices of the Black community that need to be heard always but especially now.
I will sit here and say that I cannot ever understand, but I will stand with you.
My heart goes out to the Black community, and I join you in this fight against racial injustice.
I will be continuing to educate myself on systemic racism in our society and encourage all my white friends to do the same.
I do not wish to overstep the voices that truly need to be heard. I wrote this to let the Black community, and all my Black friends, know that I stand with you and am here for you. And to remind all my white friends that we can and must be better.
Attached is a list of Black community members and organizations to listen to and follow, as well as a list of resources for educating ourselves.
May we listen and learn and may the world one day see peace. God bless.
Organizations to follow:
NAACP
Black Lives Matter
Campaign Zero
Black Visions Collective
Minnesota Freedom Fund
The Leadership Conference on
Civil and Human Rights
Movement For Black Rights
Color Of Change
Showing Up For Racial Justice
Reclaim the Block
Ethel’s Club
United We Dream
Voices to follow:
Patrisse Cullors-Brignac
Layla F. Saad
Tamika D. Mallory
Samuel Sinyangwe
Rachel Elisabeth Cargle
Ava DuVernay
Stephen Jackson Sr.
Zeba Blay
Austin Channing Brown
Deray McKesson
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Read:
White Fragility
by Robin DiAngelo
How to Be an Anti-Racist
by Ibram X. Kendi
The New Jim Crow
by Michelle Alexander
Divided Sisters
by Midge Wilson and Kathy Russell
The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
They Can’t Kill Us All
by Wesley Lowery
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
Fatal Invention
by Dorothy Roberts
Locking Up Our Own
by James Forman
The Miner’s Canary
by Lani Guiner and Gerald Torres
The Wretched of the Earth
by Frantz Fanon
Watch:
Dear White People
American Son
When They See Us
Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap
Time: The Kalief Browder Story
13th
Who Killed Malcolm X?
See You Yesterday
If Beale Street Could Talk
The Hate U Give
Clemency
Just Mercy
Selma
King in the Wilderness
The Hate You Give Us
Listen:
1619(NYT)
About Race
Code Switch(NPR)
Intersectionality Matters!
Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw
Momentum: A Race Forward Project
Pod For The Cause
Pod Save the People
Seeing White
The Diversity Gap
