Our country is moving through a lot of pain right now.
Seeing police brutality and other forms of violence and discrimination makes one sick to the stomach, sick to the soul. And yet it's nothing relative to the grief the Black community is feeling, and has been, for decades, centuries now.
Many of those of us who are white, are standing with our Black brothers and sisters. But some white individuals, sadly, do not. They do not stand with or for those who do not share their pigmentation; they stand against. They do not care to understand or empathize. They insist on calling the police on (Black) birdwatchers in New York, (Filippino) chalk artists in San Francisco, (Black) people sleeping in their cars in drive-throughs. They insist, oblivious to the narrative they're building against themselves. Which, incidentally, is being recorded by smartphones everywhere.
What is this fear of the "other"? What is this hatred of people of a differently colored skin, when we are all the same species? What is this deep-seated desire to control, oppress, and dominate? Not just the Black people, either. It happened with the Native Americans. With the Asian population here in the U.S. The Maya and Aztecs in Central America. The Indians of India. Not ironically, it's also happening with Nature and non human animal species. It's the extractive, greed-driven, power-hungry colonial mindset, fused with a self-righteous belief that the whites are a superior ethnicity.
It's the antithesis of collaboration, cooperation, compassion. Of sustainable co-existence.
I've been listening more than speaking these past few weeks because I feel the voices that need to speak now are Black voices. Even if my own people's history is not intertwined with American history, I live here and it's time to listen. Listen, look, and learn. Listen to the Black voices. Learn about
Tulsa and
Rosewood and
Seneca Village and all those nearly forgotten moments of a critical history. Look past the rioting and unrest to see the deeper "why's." We've been silent too long, but it's been the wrong kind of silence. The silence we need now is the kind that listens. Without judgment and without fear. A quiet that listens deep.
Numerous corporations and individuals are speaking out, more than I've ever seen before. A lot of it can be chalked up to seizing a marketing moment, but even beneath all that cynicism, you can feel something a little different this time. People are impacted. They're realizing systemic racism really is a thing, has always been a thing, and it's not a healthy thing. I've seen the white CEO of a tech company (one of my clients) tear up in a town hall over the George Floyd killing. White workers are demanding that their companies do better by their Black brothers and sisters. At protests, the white are protecting the Black (and vice versa).
Perhaps this moment is so much more powerful now than before because we have just gone through... pardon me, we're STILL going through a massive pandemic. That has not only been grossly mismanaged at the highest levels, but also disproportionately impacted minority communities. Emotions are raw; patience is stretched nano-thin; frustration and anger are boiling over. With all the reason in the world, too. Enough really is enough.
So let's continue listening—and hearing this time. Because listening is the first step to a real conversation.
~ Birgitte
