Black Lives Matter, So Why Are We Just Now Talking About It?
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And by we, we mean the two of us. But also, at the same time, kind of the rest of the world?
Last week was life-changing. It was a weird haze of a week where we lost track of days and time had almost no meaning. We’ve never been on our phones more than we were last week, sharing and reposting and donating and having uncomfortable but necessary talks with family and friends (about racial oppression, white privilege, police brutality, etc.) and calling out racism on social media. Social media, first of all, is amazing. We kept talking about how, without it, we don’t know if this new civil rights movement (that is LONG overdue) would be as big as it is. With everyone posting resources and guidelines and tips and links and sharing their stories so that others can even kind of understand where they’re coming from, it was a week of so much education and learning.
The thing about people sharing their experiences and their personal stories of racial oppression over the years, online, for millions to see (because last week posts were blowing up and being shared like crazy, thankfully), is that it allows people who may not know anyone with stories like that to see things from a different perspective. It allows people to be placed, in a sense, in other’s shoes and gain an invaluable understanding of how the world works. As sad and tragic and heartbreaking as the past 2 weeks have been, they’ve been a long time coming and honestly this wake up call that we’re all experiencing should have happened a lot sooner. In a way, we’re grateful for this time, but hate at what expense it came.
Speaking of a wake up call, why is the world just now collectively talking about Black Lives Matter? Why have we allowed cops to murder unarmed Black people for centuries before giving a damn? We have so many questions, questions we bet a lot of people are asking right now. And if we’re being honest, we’re ashamed of having to even ask them. We’ve felt all the feelings this past week: guilt, shame, hopelessness, optimism, gratefulness. Our friend Quigley summed up a lot of what we’re feeling in this post she wrote apologizing to the Black community and vowing to be a better ally. We know at this point nobody wants to hear our white guilt and nobody needs it either. We don’t want to waste time even mentioning it because whatever bad feelings we’re having don’t even come close to how those who are truly suffering feel.
But we’re awake and listening now. Our eyes and ears are opened and it feels like everything is different, like there’s no going back after this. The world seems different, and for the first time in a long time, we feel hope for a better future for so many. We will continue to support Black Lives Matter and the Black community for as long as it takes and will do our part to help stop racial oppression and injustice towards BIPOC. There’s a lot of work to do, but seeing how much has been accomplished just in this last week has, again, given us so much hope!! The donations, the protests, the news coverage, the social media shares, the policies being passed, Biden gaining momentum over Trump (!!), and last but not least, just people educating themselves to the very real struggle of what Black people go through every day in this country. It’s true, we have no idea, and it’s hard for us to understand their pain personally, but we know now what we have to do, that we have to show up and do what must be done to make sure everyone is treated equally and fairly in this country. Enough is enough.
We plan to keep sharing, donating, educating, and learning so that we can devote ourselves to being the best ally’s we can be. We, as Americans (and as people in general) have an obligation to help anyone in need and it’s everyone’s responsibility to do what they can to make sure America is a safe place for all to live.
This is just the beginning, friends. Hope you’re in it for the long haul.
Stay safe, stay home, speak up, call other’s out, and please take care of yourself the best that you can.
#BLACKLIVESMATTER
PS: Mental Health Issues Facing the Black Community (thanks for sending through, Eric Henckel!)
