Trigger Warning: Racism, police violence
“I’m here mommy, don’t worry.”
One of a parent’s greatest fears is that their child could experience something so traumatizing it would scar them for life. Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, the fiancé of Philando Castile, experienced that last week. She watched her fiancé bleed out in front of her while her four-year-old daughter sat next to her in the car. A police officer shot him at close range during a traffic stop during which he was following directions. She watched him die because of our country’s screwed-up policing system and screwed-up systemic racism.
In the two years of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, many white people have been crying out, “This is horrible. What can I do?” One answer I’ve seen over and over from black people is for white people to get their own houses in order. The white supremacy systemic in our society can only exist and continue if white people let it. While I’ve talked about what I’ve done to try to raise my sons as anti-racist peacemakers, I haven’t discussed what I’ve done myself.
So for the sake of that little girl and all of the little black boys and girls like her, along with their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers, here is how I have confronted my own racism:
My heart and eyelids are heavy tonight after so many events of the last few days. In addition, it was my last day at my current job, so there was a bit of melancholy as I cleared out my office. But I have to believe that we can find some beauty despite the storms of our society, just as the rain cleared on July 4 just in time for the fireworks. I think I need to read my own post again from a few weeks ago on