Stupid Things White People Say

     All through my life, your life, and your Grandparent's lives and their Grandparent's lives, America  has benefitted from the spirit of the descendants of Africa. Those forcibly brought to the shores of this country to live as second class citizens or worse as property.  We have had our hearts and our very souls touched by the beauty, artistry, intellectuality and athleticism of the African American. The spirit that originated in our collective hearts present at the ignition of the spark of life of Africa  where we all came from is there. We have all benefitted from it. We have all been humbled and brought to tears by it.We all feel it and while some may deny it, it is there as part of our core at the center of our being.

      

                                                             

                 

        I could mention a list of names so storied and full of legend, so full of talent, touching the full spectrum of our American drama that it truly is something to fill you with awe.  You would, or do swell with pride if you had that occasion to actually have witnessed any one of them, on that long and growing list performing  their craft. That memory is with you now, right now, even though they may be long dead. Even if you do not care about any one of them, I can guarantee that those you may admire and respect, whom are not African American stood in awe of those African Americans, and their hearts swelled with pride because they could tell the tale of seeing them do what they do. And they may have became famous because they imitated or used that influence of the African American to become who they became. Whether it be a song that hits you so deep to your soul that you cannot deny it is something truly magical. Or the crack of a bat onto a ball that flew into space never to be found, or the record breaking speed of human feet, Or an invention you use everyday or a poem or book. You swelled with pride and claimed those Americans, those African Americans and their achievements as your own, as our own our American own.
 
     
     You know how the  songs added something you will never be able to describe to your soul, and how it added to your falling in love, or encapsulated your sadness and made you feel not quite so forlorn and alone. Or ripped your heart open with its shear artistic beauty.  I could mention the names,  but you know them you have felt them, or will. But just me in writing that sentence probably a 100 songs and faces and feelings have flashed before you. They made you feel something deeply necessary to your humanity. They were vital to your understanding of the world of heartbreak, of love, of life, and they continue to be so today.
 
         I ask, I plead with you my fellow caucasian brothers and sisters, to open your ears and hearts as you would to the music, the artistry, the athleticism the poetry the vitality the indomitable beauty.  I know you all have wondered what it would be like to see and feel life through the eyes and body of A black man or woman but I doubt you would want to stay black, when you felt the everyday small or large injustices they must face, simply because of the color of their skin. We cannot pretend though we have any inkling or iota of an idea as to what it is like to be black we just cannot. It is folly to even make an argument to this respect on any level.  We must take the word of our fellow Americans, the African Americans who have forged a huge part of our American culture, I could argue the best part of our American culture, that has come from the African Americans. Or at the very least has enriched our lives more deeply than any of us could imagine. Yet we all know it to be true.  It is furthermore the spirit of our very Democracy that we listen and hear the grievances of all, so we may all benefit from the uplifting unto equality of us all. Isn't this the freedom that we say we all have? If there are so many African Americans whom we admire and trust, and even if you don't there are so many voices they cannot possibly be making all this up. However you have eyes and ears, and I believe all of us know that it happens, that discrimination and racism is here, has always been here to sully our patriot dreams of our America the ugliness is always there. we all know it and see it everyday.




       Fellow white folks our  largest crime in all of this is our complacency. The sad way in which we deal with what we all know is a reality. This is far beyond that silly phrase "obey the law and nothing will happen."  Which works for white folks pretty damn well, when we have a problem with the police warranted or not, We may get a ticket or maybe get a DUI or arrested for whatever infraction we deserve. Sometimes a white mass murderer may even get a police escort to a fast food restaurant before heading to jail. But far more often our interactions with the police do not result in us white folks being dead. No amount of statistics are needed, and certainly we need not regurgitate any of the terrible stereotypes of our uneducated and yes racist brothers and sisters who say it's a Black on Black thing or it's "Their" fault. We need to listen and we need to calm down and start being the human beings we tell our children we are. We need to recognize what we are, and how we view people of color, and realize that the only choice we have, the only one that will make progress happen, the only choice that is correct and virtuous and true,and American is to listen to America's African Americans, whom we respect and even idolize  and realize what we have been as a nation, and to stop being that.       Or  if you need proof that what African Americans say is true ask a black person, ask one of your black friends, but chances are if you have black friends, you already know.  You know what goes on and know they have a legitimate grievance already. We need to listen and understand now, not just keep saying the same stupid things white people have been saying for generations. We need to know that the right to sit during the National Anthem is just as important as the right to stand.