A personal manifesto on racism.

This is a personal manifesto, inspired by being the son of interracial parents. Despite the power of parental love, I have been and continue to be, an angry witness to racial hatred, discrimination and vile injustice. I am a “beneficiary” of what we now realize is “white privilege.”

As Americans we sadly have a long history of atrocities being perpetrated against our Black citizens. There is other disenfranchisement, in other nations towards Asian, Latino, LGBT and Jewish citizens, as well. This message is specifically focused on our Black brothers and sisters, in our country, whose differences in appearance, regularly cause, what is called “profiling, “which in fact is targeting.

African Americans are such an integral part of our country. Slavery made America wealthy. Some white people, see such an outpouring of anger, social media posting, public protests, letter writing campaigns and are outraged by these, as well as the taking of a knee and the #Black Lives matter movement. Why?

Whenever we learn about the next souls including: George Floyd, Aiyana Jones, Ahmaud Arbery, Trevon Martin, a young man, younger than my own children, and so many Americans, losing their lives, the best of us are stunned and angered. It’s painful to experience the reactions of the worst among us. If we have a reaction to obvious racism such as what happened to George Cooper; having the police called on him for asking a person to follow the Dog Leash Law… What does the person with the dog say to him? “I’m going to call the cops and tell them an African American man is threatening my life.” Therein lies the actual crime for all of these people, it’s not attacking another person, resisting arrest, or breaking and entering… it’s being Black in America! Land of the free…home of the brave…are we living up to those words? Clearly not.

All this national outpouring of support is needed, obviously… yet the bigger question I find myself looking at, and hopefully friends, family, and anyone who happens to read this will ask is, what am I doing? Not doing? Why did I wait until now to make the small effort of letting my social media relationships, be aware of my feelings? Every day, I see, indignities. Equally important, is the tragic realization: I seeing all racism. Worse yet? How am I instigating these moral crimes, intentionally or not? Sadly, it did not take a lot of searching to see that I have not stood up, noticed and I have, indeed participated. My intention in any of these situations is irrelevant. Using the words “I was too shocked to say anything “is unacceptable. You see, silence in such situations is condoning and breeding prejudice. Whenever we are silent and inactive, we are complicit.

I am truly sorry, and I owe amends that can’t be made, by stating “words.” That is too simple and just lets me off the proverbial hook. Nor will my words of outrage at the next death or beating relieve me of my debt. This may be hard to hear for some white people who consider themselves evolved in this area, our “showy social media actions” will not absolve us either. If we want to be better human beings, we must join the fight, as warriors, like our generation never has, until, hopefully, now.

People of Color have been fighting against the chokehold of racism since the birth of our nation. Like every person, people of color are to be honored… esteemed… loved… Why is it the responsibility of the oppressed to do the fighting? This is where we all must act… this is where true amends can be made. We must listen, without the need to explain or be heard. This is a journey we are all on and one that the white privilege, which I know I benefit from, must be reduced and ultimately destroyed. That will not happen in my lifetime. Still, we must begin. We are all created equals, though that is not the reality people of color experience. It is long, so long past due, that we passionately participate in making equality an actual reality and not something that is just regurgitated. As if simply saying it will make it so.

I am blessed to belong to a family that is made up of multiple races: Black, Latin, Asian and white, multi-faith, Christian, Jew and Buddhist. We as a country can no longer celebrate confederate flags, accept swastikas, tell racist jokes, tolerate serving white customers first, or not at all yes, that still happens, we must speak up when hearing “you are a credit to your race”, “you are so articulate,”, “where did you find a Black one that can talk, as well as we do” are examples our family experienced first-hand, as well as: or when marketing furniture in the last century, being told: “They don’t buy furniture.” As white people, we cannot stand idly by, as passive observers. We must share that privilege we have taken advantage of for so long and that starts with giving back the dignity that has been stolen. Malcolm X once said “If you stick a knife in my back 9 inches and pull it out 6 inches, that’s not progress. If you pull it all the way out, that’s not progress. The progress comes from healing the wound that the blow made.” We must take responsibility for healing the wounds we as a race have made.

I look up to both of my incredible parents in such powerful ways…I will write about my white parent at another time. My African American parent is wise, brilliant, loving and recognized by titans of art and industry as a genius and has accomplished so much despite the racism faced each day. A teacher of powerful lessons that we all must learn. We are not color blind, nor should we be color blind. Being color blind, is just another way of stealing dignity.

Why would we want to be color blind? This would deprive every one of us of the beauties in other cultures, gifts from God, the wisdom of life experience that we could not possibly have. Our differences should be celebrated!

I commit to setting aside my fears of committing multiple faux-pas, my fear of offending those who disagree, my complacency and replace these negative deeds with love, which is a verb, love is not what we say, love is what we do…regularly, no matter how we feel… support and active participation in true healing for those I love and our fellow human beings. If you have taken the time to read this, I hope you will be inspired to take your own regular actions and make the changes in your heart and life that you know need to happen. Will you please start today? Will you please be consistent in your actions to fight racism?

Thank you for investing your time to read and consider a better path for all of us.