This diary started as a response to so many diaries fueled by Ferguson and Black Lives Matter, by battles over LGBT rights, and over all of the sexual assaults and violence and limiting of women’s rights going on right now. It kept getting longer, so I decided to turn it into my own first diary.
First, I completely agree that racism is real, and that black males have an especially dangerous time with police. I deny nothing in the many diaries I have read of the black experience, and you have every right to anger and outrage. I condemn the actions of the police and of all of the horrible people that stand behind them and cheer them on.
That said, I also feel an ‘us vs. them’ anger here that pushes those of us who have white skin but human values away. I call out racism when I see or hear it, just as I do sexism and any other ‘ism’ I see. I cannot know your experience, but I can and do empathize, and will do (and already do) all I can to bring attention to all inhumanities.
How can we turn the energies of our anger and our need for justice to lift us all up? Part of how the Powers That Be keep the rest of us in line is to make it look like our battles are separate things so we split our energy, our money, our resources, even to the extent of fighting among ourselves as to whose battle is more important or more just, but they are all a part of the whole.
(More below the orange Freedom cloud)