Listening and learning: being an anti-racist

I haven’t known what to say… and I have been afraid of saying the wrong thing. And while I’ve shared some things on Instagram and had private conversations, I haven’t known if my voice was just one more contributing to the noise, or pushing forward a conversation we need to have. If you feel yourself walking in tension right now, lean into that feeling. We are not asked to have answers. 

My dad used to say “If you have the power to help someone, you help them.” I didn’t realize until I was older that he was paraphrasing Proverbs. “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.” (Proverbs 3:27)

Right now I don’t know what acting means beyond praying, reading, listening, teaching my children and writing my representatives demanding they act. 

My audience is very diverse. And I want to speak to all of you when I say I love you. I truly do. You have given me such a gift over the past six years of allowing me to listen and be a part of your stories when you leave a comment, ask a question or pour your heart into an email. And you mean so much to me. 

But I want to speak directly to Black members of my audience when I saw: I see you. I hear you. I believe you. And I am sorry.

It is not your job to teach me, but it is my job to learn. And I will never truly understand what a person of another race faces. I will never understand the weight of a system of oppression. But I do want to stand with you as we walk together in changes for our collective future.