When you hear “Black Lives Matter” is your response, “All Lives Matter”? Do you feel angry? Defensive? Why? What is it about hearing Black Lives Matter that makes you yell back, All Lives Matter? I can tell you that it’s not because you are taking into consideration the complete disregard of Black lives for the past 400 years. My guess is that you want to matter too. Maybe you feel like you’re being told you don’t matter. Now for a moment let your mind open to a tiny glimpse of how a Black person may feel.
We have an opportunity to participate in breaking the vicious cycle of hatred; to stay silent is to choose violence. This is a time to examine our hatred and discomfort, not justify or blame. There is no amount of excuses/justifications for how black people have and continue to be dehumanized! Oppressed! If you don’t want to see it I can’t make you. Only you have the power to open your heart to the harm your direct action and especially inaction causes.
There are endless resources at your fingertips. Ignorance is no longer an excuse, it’s a choice. You can start with a simple Google search of “Be Antiracist.” It’s new to me! I cannot and will not live with blinders anymore. I hope you’ll join me.
Ben Harper put it best, “There’s good deeds and then there’s good intentions. They are as far apart as Heaven and Hell.” How will you make your deeds and intentions align for the better of our Black, Native, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Jewish and various communities of color?
Kate Stone Velasco
Cordova