This is America. Don’t catch you slippin’ now. – Childish Gambino, “This is America,” 2018

“I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.”- MLK Jr, “The Other America,” 1967 (emphasis my own)

Well. Here we are again. No, that’s not right. Here we still are. In the midst of a global pandemic, America has come out of its homes in force to protest the killings of unarmed black Americans. Ahmaud Arbery- shot dead in February while going for a run NEAR HIS HOME in Georgia. It isn’t until the beginning of this month (May) that the video emerges, and arrest begin to be made. Breonna Taylor- shot dead by police IN HER OWN HOME in Louisville in mid-March. No arrests have been made. Tony Mcdade- black trans man shot dead last week by police in Florida. George Floyd- murdered by police last week after being arrested in Minneapolis. For almost 9 minutes, a cop restrained Floyd with a knee on his neck, as he repeatedly begged for his mother and told the police that he couldn’t breathe. Floyd was pronounced dead within the hour.

Four lives, gone. And it just keeps happening. All of these precious unique sons and daughters are now statistics, added to the long list of black lives lost to police brutality and systemic racism. Amidst a pandemic that has taken the lives of over 100,000 Americans, thousands upon thousands of people have turned up to protest against these senseless deaths. Speaking of coronavirus, lest we forget that Black and Brown Americans are dying of the virus at disproportionate rates. If any of this is surprising, you haven’t been paying attention. There is SO much to be said and done about racism in America. I will never stop reading, writing, protesting, marching, crying, yelling, learning and unlearning in the name of social justice. It is not and cannot be the job of Black people to move out of their own oppression. Only the oppressors can do that. All white people benefit from whiteness. Does that make you uncomfortable? It should. So while there is much work to be done, I am providing a few simple things I can do as a white ally, and what I hope you do if you are white too:

1.) Unlearn/relearn the true history of The United States. Friends: the system is not broken. The system was built like this. Black people in America were literally forced across the world in chains, enslaved to the white man. They literally built the country. Our “democracy” was founded on a fallacy, our capitalist economy was built by slave labor. After the Civil War, as Reconstruction began, laws were put into place to ensure that Black Americans couldn’t receive adequate health care, education, or property rights. The Jim Crow era began. 5000 Blacks (that we know of) were lynched in the first half of the 20th Century. After WW2, we had bombings and rioting and sit-ins and civil rights marches and assassinations. Student leaders of anti-race movements were being killed. And then there was crack in the 80s and welfare in the 90s and police killings in the 2000s. Nothing has changed. If you think otherwise, your privilege has allowed you to remain blind to the systemic racism that is threaded into every facet of our democracy.

Most of us learned an extremely sanitized, uncomplicated, unnuanced version of slavery and civil rights in school. There are countless resources for educating yourself. There are wonderful lists of anti-racist literature to read. There are documentaries and shows and podcasts. It’s our responsibility as white people to unlearn what we have been taught, question why we aren’t taught the truth, And re-educate ourselves. Don’t know where to start? Watch the documentary “The 13th” and listen to the podcast “1619.” Believe me.

2.) Shut up and listen to Black people’s experiences. Just SHUT UP. We as white people have no idea what it’s like to live as a Black person in America. One of the most important things we can do is simply listen to Black people’s experiences. Yes I understand the irony of me, a white person, writing this. But I hope that I can use this medium and my privilege to lift up and amplify Black voices, and pass along their work. DON’T ask your Black friends to explain racism to you. We have been living in a racist country and have all the resources in the world that we need to educate ourselves. DO listen to them, sit with that experience, and understand their perspective. It is up to US as white people to end racism, but we can’t pretend to understand the true depths of it without amplifying Black voices.

3.) Call out racists. Call out your friend, your family member, your coworker. Language MATTERS. Language can be weaponizing. Speaking about people as if they are lesser than opens the door to treat people as if they are lesser than. When people are treated as lesser than, its easy for them to be perceived as less than human. When someone is perceived as less than human violence can be incited upon them more easily. When a whole culture has been poisoned by both subtle and explicit racist language for 250 years… well, here we are.

There is so much more that we all can and should do as white people, and, more importantly, as people who care about and love other people. Donate to the family funds of the slain, donate to Black Lives Matter, familiarize yourself with the mission and history of the movement. This is only the very beginning of the conversation. Sending love and JUSTICE to all. Black Lives Matter.