Dear White People.
I love you all. I hope you know that. I count many of you as friends, as brothers, as sisters. But your unwillingness to listen to the cries of your neighbors and drown it out with KLove is literally killing people.
Racism in America is not dead. It is not in the hands of the few, of the extremists. It is systemic. It is permitted. White nationalism is simply the tip of an iceberg that is build on White moderates.
“First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.” - MLK Jr.
Now is not the time to say, “I’m not like them.” The face of James Fields Jr is too close to home. I could have grown up with him. His mother seems like a kind and caring midwestern woman. But her staying out of his “political views”, his having an “African American friend” highlights that there is a desperate need for you to not be silent, for you to not simply say, “well that’s too bad, that’s so sad” and move on with life.
Please do not be silent. Please do condemn domestic terrorism and white nationalism. Please learn and take action for justice. Please be a part of dealing with our national sin instead of perpetuating it for yet another generation.