On MLK JR Day

“I have a dream that one day the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
—MLKJR

Raising Black sons & having Black friends & learning from Black mentors + pastors doesn’t mean I get a pass on doing the work, doesnt mean I’ve arrived anywhere worth accepting. It doesn’t mean I know an ounce of what it means to live Black in America.

Actually, it means I better be really serious about understanding & comfortable talking about/unpacking racism, oppression, white supremacy, subtle & overt & major & moderate injustice. Because I have a lot of people I can hurt over & over again if I’m not waking up...if I’m stuck in my own guilt & fragility & defensiveness.

It means I better be leading conversations with my kids already, about all MLKJR poured his life into, and not just the quotes like I shared above. Talking with them about how we haven’t arrived to what he spent his life for, not me personally and not us as a nation. But we will keep doing what we can to invite other families to see clearer, love better, to stand up for what is right.

We talked a lot about MLKJR today and Ira kept chanting Black Lives Matter thru the house & asked to make signs again.

I once read from a Black author a plea to white people...it was something like “Can you please raise your white kids to not shoot my brown kids?” We have work to do, and it is good & holy work.

Our systems are corrupt and are slow to truly transform, but we can do a lot within the walls of our homes.

Let’s every day keep unpacking our whiteness and the way it pervades our world, & work to actually lay it down so instead, justice can pervade. Only then will peace & unity be accessible.

“There can be no justice without peace. And there can be no peace without justice,” —MLKJR

HBD, you are one fierce legend. I wish you could see my family.