"Sometimes I wish I could try on white skin"

[Moostache]

22. K&R for truth and exposure to more eyes!

I can't say it better and I can't describe his experiences at all.

I can only empathize, and try to understand; listen and try to make change happen faster, make the arc of history bend towards justice a little quicker today than yesterday. I can teach my children the truth - that through no action of our own, through a cosmic genetic lottery, we were born with a winning ticket and unearned advantages. We get assumptions of innocence, latitude to be less fearful around police and judges, more likely to be given the benefit of the doubt in all matters; and we did exactly NOTHING to deserve or earn them. Recognizing that this is TRUE, and fundamentally WRONG, is the least I can teach them. And I can assure them that the right thing to do is to speak out against anyone they are around who says otherwise or tries to minimize this reality in favor of a self-servign fiction.

As a white man, all I can say is that I see those experiences as the photo negative of my own, literally exact opposites...and until that changes, until policing changes and profiling and targeting changes, then we ALL have to remain united in a call to make sure that Black Lives Matter as a reminder to ourselves that silence is acceptance and acceptance is killing people who deserve to live their lives as much as anyone else - and worst of all, it is killing some people at much higher rates than others and for too long went unchallenged and unacknowledged - still does for the "all lives" types.

Until we live in a country where Arnold Ragas - and everyone or anyone with dark skin instead of pale skin - can stop feeling like that AT ALL, let alone ALL THE TIME (out of necessity or fear for their very lives), we cannot allow the urgency to fade or the status quo to creep back into a comfort zone for any length of time. Many miles to go, and many weary folks to help along the way, but fighting back against those who divide for political and personal advantage is the least we can all do. If everyone starts with just the least we can, it adds up to a lot.