White silence is violence.

I am white, I have remained silent, I have wondered, questioned, disbelieved.

I am part of the violence, one voice that has stayed silent, because my skin wasn’t targeted. Because I was continually told that I was privileged.

And for a long time, I thought that was an insult. But I have since learned that it is not. It is truly a privilege and an opportunity.

I wish they would only take me as I am
— Vincent Van Gogh

One of the people I admire the most doesn’t share my skin color. My co-workers don’t share my skin color. To me, it’s never mattered. To me, that made them prettier than I am, it made me marvel and admire our diversity.

The beauty and uniqueness of life.

But not to others. Others see my friends as less. See them was lives that don’t matter, lives that shouldn’t be lived.

I’m here to say that life matters.

Black lives matter. Asian lives matter. Unborn lives matter.

We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are different and yet the same.
— Anne Frank

I will never know what it’s like to not have the privileges of a white American girl. I’ll never know what it’s like, but that doesn’t mean I should stay in the shadows, hiding. It doesn’t mean I should doubt what’s happening.

It’s been happening for hundreds of years, to so many different colored skins.

I’m here to say that being white doesn’t make me better than anyone else. It just makes me sunburn. There is nothing about me that makes me better than you, nothing.

I’m human. I bleed the same color of blood. I breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. I get dirty, I cry, I get angry, I get hurt.

There’s nothing that makes white people better than black people. Nothing. There’s nothing that makes white people better than Asians, or Hispanics, or any other kind of ethnicity. Nothing.

Can I say that loud enough?

“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Murder is never okay, regardless of who does it to whom. Murder is condemned in the Word of God, and so we must not only give comfort to those hurt by this injustice, by this tragedy.

We must confront the root of the problem, we must stand and be heard. There is no time for us to wait around and see. No time for us to wonder at this tragedy.

It has happened. It has continued to happen. And it won’t end if we don’t stand together, regardless of our skin, and point out blatant facts.

Racism is wrong.

Discriminating is wrong.

Murder is wrong.

And why?

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
— Galatians 3:28

 

For God shows no partiality.
— Romans 2:11

 

Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. You shall not murder.
— Leviticus 24:17, Exodus 20:13

Now is not the time to be silent, for whatever reason you might have. Now is not the time to worry about hate comments, about what others think about you, or even your stats. Now is not the time to wonder what your friends will say about an awkward conversation, or worry about how this will make you look.

If you do not speak, you are guilty.

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
-Dietrich Bonhoffer

We must speak, we must act, we must resist silence. We must stand, face the problem, and work with those who are trying to eradicate it.

Regardless of your skin color, you matter.

Regardless of your ethnicity, you should stand.

Regardless of your privileges, you should speak.

Because all lives matter.

Because black lives matter.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality…. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

~~Amie~~