If you’re white and racist, delete me.

So many people have been asking me why, as a white female, I am so interested in the Black Lives Matter movement and what has been going down in Minnesota and Texas. The truth is ever since I could read and comprehend a chapter book, I have been reading about oppression throughout history. In the third grade, I devoured books about Anne Frank and Harriet Tubman because they were so fascinating to me. I wondered what it would have been like to be them and admired them for their bravery and for the way that they changed the course of history for generations of people to come. I read about desegregation and I wondered how hateful people had to be that it wasn’t okay to drink from the same water fountains, eat from the same tables, or learn at the same schools over skin color. I didn’t understand it, but I was also thankful that I didn’t have to try to as I was growing up. But now I do, and not because people have suddenly become hateful again, but rather my eyes have been opened to the injustices that some people in this world have to face for reasons beyond their control.

“Those who fail to learn about history are doomed to repeat it.” — George Santayana (see comments)

As an educated person, I feel it is my duty to watch the news, to watch the live streams, to talk to those around me, and try to learn from everything that I take in. I feel this way because if we could just simply listen to those around us, we could understand why people feel the way they do. I had to learn that not everything in my life is about me. When I see injustice, I have a duty to stop, to listen, and when needed, to rise up and do something about it.

We all have that duty. As individuals, we are all capable of changing the course of history, one action at a time. No matter what your race is, you have that duty and the power to make a difference. Stop the bullshit. Stop the violence. No one should feel that their lives are at risk when they’re just trying to live their lives or go to work, regardless of their race or occupation. We should all have a reasonable expectation in America that we will at least not die at the hands of another person.

Remember America, love is free.