I’ll tell you what’s on my mind.
I’ve seen so many people, many of whom speak the name of Jesus in their bios, commenting strongly against the symptoms of our climate of racial injustice – the violence we’re seeing in the streets. And condemning rioting is OK; burning and destroying is not what we are called to do.
Yet, from these same people railing against the symptom, I overwhelmingly see silence on the disease. I see silence on the implicit bias or straight up hate we see against people of color, silence on murders, silence on privilege, silence on the Amy Coopers of the world, silence on people who might not say “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life” but those who wouldn’t bat an eye at calling the police, not understanding their own biases.
These people sometimes ask “what exactly do you mean by anti-racist?” How about for every tweet or retweet you post condemning riots, go tweet or retweet 10 things you read on the experiences of the oppressed. And if those stories aren’t showing up on your Facebook News or Twitter feed, go find them. They’re not hard to see if you open your eyes to people and ideas different than your own.
My heart is beating fast as I type this, admittedly not even out of anger or passion, but because I’m afraid (edit: I’m terrified. I don’t care how unmanly or weak that makes me sound. I’ve never voiced myself publicly like this before). I’m afraid I won’t say the right things, or my words might be picked apart and disproved by those who refuse to believe that white privilege and biases exist.
I’ll add that in all walks of life, I believe it is not the responsibility of the disprivileged to change the hearts of those who are in privileged people groups and don’t use it for good. I assume responsibility as a Christian in America where other religions are feared or hated, as a straight person in a society that has hated against those who aren’t, as a male seeing men use misogynistic, objectifying language against women, just to name a few examples. It’s on me as a part of these privileged groups to call out hateful, prejudiced rhetoric I hear from others or myself.
But right now, we’re talking about skin color. It’s not a conversation that involves polished, practiced responses. It’s a lot of raw anger and complete exhaustion. Simply put, we’re pissed and spent.
So, if you’re one who wants to help and is willing to acknowledge the injustices of racial bias and murder, my advice would be to listen and read. Talk to black people and be willing to listen to whatever we want to share; find a way to get a copy of the many books on white privilege and systemic racism (many of which are on back-order on Amazon, which I consider a step in the right direction).
If you are a person of the Christian faith, consider what you’ve thought about and done for the least of us.
That’s all I have. My thoughts on these issues won’t ever end as long as I’m on this earth. No poignant ending; get to work.