#BlackLivesMatter
Dear Best Friend,
My heart breaks.
My soul hurts.
My mind fails.
Fails to grasp the depth of the world's pain. Of their pain. Of our pain.
Fear of speaking up.
Fear of staying quiet.
Fear of doing anything at all.
Keep your head down. Say nothing. Be ashamed.
Ashamed of those who share your skin color.
Ashamed of your heritage of colonizers, slave owners and lynchers.
Ashamed to be white when those who are not face challenges far greater than you ever will.
You'll never understand. Don't even try. You're destined to offend.
Too easy would it be to cover the sins of others with generalizations and trite remarks.
Too quick could I cast a shadow of doubt over the representation of the circumstances.
Too sure would I be that no one could possibly do what they are accused of doing.
Yet, it happened. We lost them.
Regardless of the reasons, explanations, rationales..
Our fellow human beings lost their lives.
And it seems to have something to do with color, race, stereotype, prejudice.
For that, I weep. We weep. God weeps.
I apologize to you. I grieve with you.
This is not how it was supposed to be.
Death was never supposed to happen.
Sin was never supposed to win.
And yet, and yet...
It never will.
It is still finished.
Lord, come quickly.
"Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” (Genesis 9:6)
Love,
Buff xo
Dear Buff,
It's been almost two months since you wrote this post, and that week of police and black men losing their lives happened. That week that seemed as if all the hurt in the world was piling up at once, and yet now it feels like a distant memory. A lot has happened since that week - I've had some really enlightening conversations with black men I treasure. I've started back at work, teaching students who will become these men. I've sat through some really enlightening seminars on poverty and being a minority.
During one of the seminars I leaned over and whispered to my co-worker "Are black students really the minority? Is it just me, and the fact that I've always been around them that it doesn't feel like that?" She googled the census information, and African-Americans only make up 13% of the US population. Think about how quickly "us white people" feel entitled to different circumstances when we feel uncomfortable. It pains me to think about it, but think about how quick we are to lock our car doors when we enter certain areas. Think about how uncomfortable we can feel when we are the minority and eyes are on us. There are people who feels this way daily. And it affects them deeply.
I'm just as saddened lately at the meer thought of people feeling less than worthy for the stupidest reasons.
Because they're not skinny.
Because they can't lift weights.
Because they're a woman in a "man's" career.
Because they're not wealthy.
Because they don't have perfect eyebrows.
Because they don't have a lot of stuff.
Because of the way they earn a living.
Because of their skin color.
Too many lives of being lost for these less than worthy reasons. Suicides, police brutality, crime, violence - it's all an injustice.
You so eloquently captured the heart break we experience on this earth. The heartbreak that comes from being part of this broken broken life. Love you - so grateful for you and your heart in this chaotic world.
Ees.