"Solidarity"

My skin is white, so I do not fully understand – but I want to.

I have not lost a brother to an act of police injustice.

I have no family member who has been wrongly accused, found guilty, nor imprisoned for an act he or she did not commit.

I have no history of family who was lynched, burned, beaten, shot or enslaved, so I do not fully understand – but I want to.

I see your pain. It rips my heart to pieces – but I cannot say I know the pain you are feeling because I do not. But I want to. I need to.

I want to see. I want to feel. I want to understand in the bowels of my being, but I do not, at least not at the depths of your experience.

I cannot fully understand or feel your pain because I am white and therefore privileged. I have the privilege of the benefit of a doubt, no matter where I go, so I cannot understand. But I want to. I need to.

While I cannot fully understand, I will kneel in solidarity with you. I will kneel in solidarity because we are more alike than we are different.

We both bleed and heal. We both laugh and cry; we both hope and fear and dream. We both give love and receive love.

I will kneel in solidarity by calling out injustice and raising a voice for justice. I will call out oppression and raise a voice for equality. I will raise a voice for ending this subhuman madness called racism.

I kneel in solidarity because you are my sister, my brother, my mother, my father. I will kneel in solidarity because you are a person of infinite worth, goodness, and beauty.

We are one in this grand human family. Without you, I am nothing.

With you I AM and WE ARE.

6/2/2020

#blacklivesmatter