Real Greatness

The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.  -Toni Morrison

I see you. No matter how close you draw the veil (or sheet), the sun is shining through. I see you.

Calling yourself a patriot. Twisting innocent words. Teaching your children to fear the truth. Asleep in some pastime paradise when given the opportunity to awaken, to be woke. Yeah, I said it.

That’s the gift of history. The dead hand of the past reaches into the present to give you the key to the white supremacy toolbox.

These diversionary tactics are familiar because they are the progeny of lies born 400 years ago. Easy to recognize.

But I’m not really talking to you. I’m talking to us. Those of us who want historical truth to serve our fractured present.

When people decided to challenge the racial status quo, they did not wage war. They walked. They rode. They sat. They refused to participate in an unjust world at the same time as they were building a just one. That’s what we do.

I know how easy it is to become weary. We wonder why the world is this way and why we have to keep fighting battles that we thought we had already won. But we cannot avoid the truth that every generation has their own struggles in the effort to make the world a harmonious and loving place.

We can’t afford to neglect all our work in the world in order to attend to negativity and hate. I’m not oblivious to what you’re doing or apathetic. I’m busy.

So here is to the patriots, the peacemakers, the creators of truth and beauty.

I see you.