Black Lives Matter - Justice starts at home
The days of silence are not because I don’t care. Not because I don’t have an opinion. Not because I am numb to the injustices of the world. The days of silence are because I feel my voice doesn’t matter. How many of us can honestly say that our opinion was changed because of some inspirational quote we read on Facebook, or some right or left winged comment on a post. The truth is most of us already have our minds made up, and that is what makes me silent.
People don’t wake up racist. In fact, most of us would not even consider ourselves racist. And honestly that is the dangerous part. We pretend like we don’t see color. We say things like “they” and “them” without realizing it. These microaggressions are the underlying proof of the our prejudice inside our hearts. You see, we all have it. Maybe it is the stereotype that all black people are thugs. Maybe it is that Mexicans are taking our jobs. Maybe it is the belief that white people are trailer trash. Whatever it is, there is some piece of it inside of all of us. And unless we are willing to look deep inside then uncomfortable crevices of our calloused hearts, we will never be able to bring these dark thoughts to light.
Today, let us take a look at the shit that we don’t want to deal with. The shit that is inside of our heads, that goes to our hearts, and that makes its way back up through our mouths into words that continue to perpetuate the cycle of separation and segregation between races, between genders, between our fellow neighbors. Until we are ready to admit to ourselves and before God these subconscious prejudice thoughts, we will be unable to fully unite with our brothers and sisters.
So maybe that is what has kept me silent. The fear that we are beyond repair. The fear that my post or comment will only increase the racial divide. The fear that may things ARE as bad as the media portrays. But I have done too much work to live in fear. I have fought too hard against the constraints of fear to let it take away the freedom which lies beyond it. Today I refuse to let fear win. We can change. We will change. We have to change. But to do so we must be honest with ourselves and with others. That is the only place in which real revolution is possible. We must bring this darkness to light, because light is the place where true freedom can shine. Let us remove the chains that we have used to hold others in oppression and see them as the reality that they are the same chains that have kept us from a life of freedom and unity. We can not fix it all in one day, but we can start with a phone call, an “I am sorry”, a deep look within ourselves to pull out the trash that is not worthy to live inside our Holy bodies. We are called to more than this. You are called to more than this. Healing begins today. Revolution starts inside of us.
