Thoughts on Current Events

Where do you stand? Because you have to stand somewhere, not being political is not an option anymore, everything is political. So where do you stand? Yes, black lives matter, of course they matter, and no, police brutality is never okay, never acceptable. But racism reaches far, far further than what is unfolding in the US right now. Many of us on this side of the world have never experienced or understood violence against black people. But let’s not kid ourselves, this doesn’t mean that we don’t know racism. This doesn’t mean that we haven’t contributed to racism. The reality is that racism is a universal experience, it just looks different in different parts of the world. If we want to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement from across the world, we must take a step back and look at our own reality first. How does racism creep into our daily lives? 

Ask yourself: how do I treat the immigrant workers that I see every single day of my life? How do I treat people with service jobs (waiters, cleaners, nannies, drivers, to name a few)? Do I realize that they are working far from home, far from their families, just to make ends meet? Or do I believe that they are just different and that means they are not my concern? Do I have empathy for these people whose jobs, by their very nature, make them targets of exploitation? Or have I conformed with the attitude that they are here to serve me? Where do you stand? 

You cannot stand with George Floyd and mistreat domestic workers. 

You cannot stand with the #BlackLivesMatter movement and believe that you are better than the immigrant workers in your country. 

You cannot support the uprising in the US and be angry about having too many immigrants in your country. 

You cannot. 

“People are dying at the hands of our inability to confront ourselves.” (Source: @farahrising, Instagram)

So face your judgment.

Face your fear.

Confront the illusion of “the other.”

Confront the illusion that we are separate. We are not separate, we were never separate.

Confront the racism that you have internalized. 

Reprogram the part of you that believes in superiority of any kind.

Reprogram the part of you that has been taught racism. 

This is the work. This is the healing. We have all been taught bigotry in one way or another, knowingly or unknowingly. It is time to realize this, to address this, and to learn to do better. This is an inside job: dismantling the racist structures that have ruled our world is an inside job. It starts with me. It starts with you. This is the way, and we have waited far too long, and we have lost far too many. So where do you stand?