Time to ask — how am I complicit?

The only topic on my mind is a sensitive one and I’m conflicted on what’s my right to say. I know this — as an American, I’m sad. I’m sad that two more black men were lost in police killings. I’m sad that all of these horrible incidents, regardless of how they’ve unfolded, make it almost impossible for a black man to feel like the odds aren’t stacked entirely against him in this country. It’s hard enough trying to make it in this world and I can only imagine how much harder it is when it feels like you have a target on your back. I’m sad that five police officers who had nothing to do with those incidents were gunned down in revenge. I’m sad because that only heightens the fear in every interaction between a police officer and a black man and will probably lead to even more violence. I’m sad because this country has so much going right for it and as the specter of terrorism looms over us, we have to keep reading about Americans killing Americans.

This is a complicated issue to unravel and I pray that the right people from all parties — black, white, political, religious, celebrities, and everymen — get involved and inspire the right action. This starts with us as individuals. We need to approach this with compassionate, collaborative hearts. We need to bring these issues into the light and talk about them with our friends. We need to take responsibility as individuals to understand how we may be enabling this cycle of misery — be it in our reinforcement of harmful stereotypes, in our rhetoric that precipitates fear and anger and violence, or be it in our silence and indifference because “someone else will figure it out” or “it’s not my problem”. It is your problem because it’s all of our problem. We need to be better than this and before we talk about how the police need to change or how white people need to change or how black people need to change, you need to figure out how you can change and do it.