God-given sorrow.
As this week comes to an end, I think it’s time to release this blog post.
Our generation is one that believes so much in speaking out we sometimes get caught up in thinking that that is our sole duty. We forget that we exist outside of the world of our so-called “social” media accounts and forget to be active in our own communities in which God has given us stewardship over. Myself included. My question is: what are we doing to build longevity for our fight against racism? How are we stepping out and doing our part?
Please don’t hear me say not to use your platforms and allow people to hear your voice, because there was once a time where even this right was held from us. I am saying to let us also allow our feet to match what we speak out about. Social media is a great avenue for all of us to talk through our feelings, to educate, to build one another up, and to correct. However, I am asking what active role are you playing in the world around you every single day to continue ensuring that racism will be diminished in our country, state, and local spheres of influence?
We need to start thinking about the longevity of our movement. I think that part of the issue of our generation is that we ride hard for a week and then our passion fizzles out, along with our efforts to obtain justice. Injustice is always working, so we should be also. The enemy of progress is inconsistency. We must not allow ourselves to get outside of the realm of consistency because that is what the enemy is after. We must toil on in our fight against the institutions of white supremacy and racism no matter how fast or slow; we must not stop moving. We must not stop educating ourselves and those around us. We must not stop having conversations and building relationships with those who may or may not look like us. We must not stop enacting legislative change. We must not stop funding organizations that help mobilize and aid our cause. We must not stop for any means.
This post is not meant to condemn anyone (I said myself included, remember?) Neither is this post to discredit the work done social media. This post is to bring light to the fact that nothing in our country will move if the only things that we move are our mouths and our fingers. More importantly, nothing will move if we do not fulfill our assignment and role in abolishing racism and white supremacy in our nation. God has gifted each and every one of us with our ethnic identity to bring light where there is darkness through our gifts, our careers, and our passions. So let’s use them for good.
Let us grow tired of seeing everyone outraged for a solid week or two tops, then kind of go back to regular life. Again, this is not to accuse anyone or to say to stop posting about the atrocities. This post also is not saying not to post selfies or moments in your life. But what this post IS saying is to think about your impact in the long run, and reevaluate your life. How are you living your life with intention? Ask yourself, “How am I moving in the day-to-day to help fight against injustice?” This can mean:
- Having tough conversations with white friends/family members.
- Building relationships with people who do not look like you.
- Listening and educating yourself to the experiences of black/white brothers and sisters.
- Utilizing your position in organizations to speak out often and regularly in order to bring light to what is happening in our country.
- Utilizing your position in organizations to provide equitable opportunities for black people.
- Utilizing your position in society to provide equitable opportunities for black people.
- Starting businesses and creating spaces for black people by black people to help build generational wealth and advancement.
- Education through social media, but also through regular day to day conversations.
- Using your profession as a conduit for education for racial injustices (on a daily basis).
- Casting your ballot in local and national elections.
- Supporting certain candidates or becoming a candidate that pushes for reform.
To be sad, to be angry, and to post about it right now are good things in and of themselves. These things help us spread awareness, they aid in education, and can help produce godly sorrow and awareness of sin by communicating the black experience. It’s good to contact your government officials about this particular case of injustice and to speak to your white friends about this particular case of injustice. That way, this situation can be handled now.
But it would benefit us most to continue to have conversations when they present themselves in everyday life, to continue to post about experiences and provide resources for education on social media, to use your career as a conduit for education, to build relationships with people who don’t look like you, to continue to be in support or be a candidate that pushes for reform, and to live life as if situations like this were happening everyday: because they are.
Let’s live everyday like someone like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, or Ahmad Arbey have died: because in our nation every single day they are, it just isn’t publicized.
I see George Floyd’s death (among others) as a despicable act of racism and white supremacy, but he however is most certainly not the first and will most likely not be the last. And that is a sad and hard truth to swallow my friends. I know my words can be misinterpreted so let me restate: we should mourn this man’s death, it is not and never will be my intention to overlook the tragedy of George Floyd’s passing. We need to mourn and process these emotions and assess the state of our country right now. We need to call people out and call out our government on unjust situations that we know have an underlying stench of racism embedded deep within.
The point of this post is to shed light that death shouldn’t be the only opportunity we use to speak out against the subject of the many injustices of this country.
I look back to the first man whose death brought me to tears, Philando Castile, in 2016 and to look four years later and see the trend of outrage and hurt occurring at or around the time that these events of death at the hand of injustice take place. Only then for the sting to fizzle out until someone else is caught on film, turning into a vicious cycle of, “Whose death are we riding on now?”
There are so many people who have been affected by the system’s use racism and injustice who have yet to have their justice rightly served. We cannot stop at the deaths of those who have already passed on. We must continue on for those who are still alive today; we must continue on for those who are still trapped in the poisonous and ravishing claws of injustice. We must continue to fight for those who are still to come in order to welcome them into a world of greater unity than we have experienced. Brothers and sisters (white brothers and sisters included) let us jump onto the concept of consistency and longevity: what can we do everyday to help our nation truly be a place of justness for African American people now and the years to come?
With love,
Kaitlin
she who abides. 