Everyone knows by
now that, within 24 hours, two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile,
have been shot and killed by police officers in Baton Rouge and the St. Paul
area, respectively. And if this is news to you, then get on it & read up!
I have spent the
last two days trying to process this. I don't even know what to say anymore.
Roxane Gay wrote this in the NYT before Castile was
killed.
"I don’t
know where we go from here because those of us who recognize the injustice are
not the problem. Law enforcement, militarized and indifferent to black lives,
is the problem. Law enforcement that sees black people as criminals rather than
human beings with full and deserving lives is the problem. A justice system
that rarely prosecutes or convicts police officers who kill innocent people in
the line of duty is the problem. That this happens so often that resignation or
apathy are reasonable responses is the problem."
I have spent the last two
days trying to process this.
I have been unable to tear myself away from my
Facebook news feed. I keep reading articles, personal essays, watching
live feed videos from people in the Black community. I feel grief,
outrage, and helplessness.
I have spent the last two days doing nothing
but read about people's grief and rage. I have shed tears at my computer while
watching live-feed videos of black women --why is it always the women who must
speak? Why the burden put upon them/us?-- and have been turning over all of
these things, all of this information in my mind.
I am also mindful
of my position as a Filipina. Yes, I am a woman of color, but I am not a black
woman who has to teach her children to "comply" with police. I am not
a black man who feels danger at the sight of a cop car or an officer in
uniform. It is different to be black in this country. I may be marginalized,
but I am not black.
Still, I am an ally. So what can I do?
First, I
gave space to my black friends. They are tired. They are tired of grief, of
rage. They are exhausted. They want to be left alone. They do not need someone
asking them "what can I do?". They need the space to fucking cry.
You're all adults. Google it, people.
Second, I have posted to my Facebook page
anything and everything that can bring some education and understanding to
those "friends" who are clueless. I don't have very many of those...
and even if I'm preaching to the choir-- it bears repeating. We need to talk
about this. We need to talk about this in the open. To get it out in light so
that we can address it, so that maybe we can see something change. There's
only so much petitions will do --and please, still keep doing that! And yes, monetary
donations to the Black Lives Matter movement or other social
justice organizations are helpful. We need money to make the gears turn.
But the bottom line out of all of this to talk to one another, to really talk
and to actively listen --to really, truly, genuinely LISTEN to what is
happening. If you have a platform, use it. Speak out. Say something! And then
to take action. No matter how small. It has to start somewhere.
But at some
point, I need to leave my computer and live my actual life. I need to feed my
family, to take care of them, to play with my kids, to do my best to raise kind
and loving human beings. I need to be IN the world, to be present IN it.
And so I leave
you with this: don't be afraid to talk about the difficult things. Bring
big love and plenty of compassion. Do what you can to make the
lives of others just a little bit better, a little bit brighter. Practice self-care. And be IN the
world -- don't just watch it go by.
xoxo--
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