Last week I read a post on FB shared by a woman I’ve known for many years. While the words were not hers, they accurately speak of what she is feeling and experiencing after the murder of George Floyd. The post was hard to read. It was raw, real, and filled with righteous anger. I wanted to stop reading part way through. I wanted to look away. For perhaps the first time in my 66 years I didn’t. I kept reading. Six words began to echo inside.
I am part of the problem. I am part of the problem. I am part of the problem.
Letting those six words in wasn’t easy, but it was too late. They were already in. Looking for a way out I jumped to problem solving. What can I do to become part of the solution? That’s the deal with most of us. We see a problem and want to do something to fix it. To make the problem go away. The problem with doing something is that it can be a convenient way to avoid an inconvenient truth—I am part of the problem.
Before I can become a part of the solution, I have to be willing to encounter the ways in which I am responsible for the racism upon which this country was built and continues to run. I have to be willing to do nothing but sit with the awful discomfort of accepting my own responsibility in bringing about this moment in which we all find ourselves.
So maybe doing nothing is actually doing something.
Since reading that FB post, I continue to sit with the many difficult emotions that arise. As things to do emerge, I do them. But what I am also coming to know is that doing nothing, staying put, sitting in the midst of the ugly emotional mess is actually doing something. It is changing me.
I am part of the solution.
Time to go do something.
A very short list of possible things to do:
Watch the video of George Floyd’s murder and bear witness to his death.
Watch the video of George Floyd’s funeral and bear witness to his life.
Read this FB post by Dara Njeri (noted above)
Make financial donations to organizations that are diligently and effectively working to address racism in all its forms and its impacts on our fellow citizens of color.
Join the MLPP 21-Day Anti-Racist Challenge.
Speak up.
Read books that are hard to read. (A few lists to check out: NPR, USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times
Choose love over fear.
Do your work to become the best version of yourself. Get a therapist. Engage a spiritual director. Face your shit, own your shit, and heal your shit. The world needs the best we have to offer.
Support and vote for candidates that get it and will do something about it.
Cultivate joy, appreciation, gratitude, and curiosity.
Practice radical hope in the midst of all that feels hopeless.
Be willing to make mistakes and learn from them.
Risk saying it wrong in order to learn how to say it right. (Watch this video by Jay Smooth to learn more.)
Stay in community.
Challenge your community.
Enlarge your community.
Extend love and grace to all, including yourself.
We are part of the solution.