We Need to Talk.

We need to talk.

We need to talk about that gut feeling you get, that instant momentary reaction of fear, when four young black men walk into the room. You know the one I’m talking about; it’s kind of the same feeling that causes you to quickly hit the power lock button on your car door when those same four black men approach your car. We need to talk about why you hope no one is watching when you do that.

We need to talk.

About that almost primal fear of a black man in a hoodie walking down the street just after dark. About how you wonder if he is up to something, or why is he in this neighborhood. About if that fear is warranted, if it has justification, and if anything really needs to be done in the black community to ease those white fears.

We need to talk.

About why the black population is incarcerated at a proportion drastically higher than their percentage of the population. About how black men are taken from their families and then stereotyped that they simply aren’t good fathers. About how the system seems to criminalize the symptoms as it spreads the disease. About how that incarceration is seen as just another form of slavery. About how something as simple as imprisoning the black population at a much more statistically level rate might actually put more black men into the lives of a younger generation of black men, and create a cycle that moves this country forward.

We need to talk.

About how important that confederate statue really is to your heritage. About how you are so unwilling to look at the world through more rainbow colored lenses. About how white privilege could exist even if you don’t see it. About why it is that you are afraid that you may no longer be in a position of majority, a position of power. About how a black President somehow ignited a rage in you that had been bubbling just beneath the surface, masked only by an idea of political correctness that somehow, just now, is too much to bear.

We need to talk.

About the times, tucked quietly away from the world, you refer to the ni***r boy, or the ni***r girl from down the street. About why it is so hard to move from one reality to a brand new one, where people of color might be smarter, richer, or just plain better than you. About how your years of simply looking the other way while they were beaten, and ridiculed and imprisoned just don’t cut it anymore, and just don’t mean that you aren’t a racist. About how truly, truly ignorant it is to think someone’s skin color has any bearing on the person they are.

We need to talk.

Because even if you fit into all of the categories above, talking is all we have. We can’t march ideas out of our heads. We can’t will them to be. God isn’t going to lay his hands upon us and show us the light. We need to talk. Because even if you fit into all of the categories above, you are a human, and you matter. And the world is a better place when you sit down, face to face with your fear, and you talk.

Where the world is failing right now, is these people are trying to talk, and no one is willing to listen. Just like you, they are humans, who don’t always know the right path, who make mistakes each and every day, and who will never change if every word they speak is met with a hatred equal to or greater than the hatred they share. It is a cycle of upheaval and those of us who don’t fit into every category above are failing on a monumental scale.

For every person in this world who needs to talk, there are 20 of us who need to listen. There are 20 of us for every one who need to rise above ourselves and offer our ear, and our hearts and in turn, our words. Then, only then, will the hatred be softened, with just a small dose of understanding, and patience, and love. This is still a country where we all have the right and the freedoms to speak from our hearts. We are entering a new age in the pendulum swing of this great invention where every side feels at peace to share in this freedom. Gone are the days where the bigots operate quietly, behind closed doors while only the fighters against oppression take to the streets. The day we live in today is where both sides of every issue are ignited by passion. And with so much noise in this world the next path will be dictated by those who can process the noise and help others escape it.

So, we need to talk, and much more importantly, we all need to listen.

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