Hi friends. 👋🏿
This is specifically for my Caucasian friends whom I love dearly. During this time of heighten racial tension you may be struggling with what to say or what not to say. I want to help. Please see the list below. It was created with love. It really was. ❤️❤️❤️
Here are some things NOT to do:
1. Don't make it about you - No one hates you. Well, actually I don’t know that to be true 🤷🏾♀️😂. Maybe they do…either way, this is about a man being tracked down like a dog and killed. We saw the video. And when his lifeless body drops to the ground we all see the face of a black man or boy we know and love. That’s more than some of us can bear. It’s not about you.
2. Don’t bring up Chicago - I know this is a go-to for everything from crime to COVID (“Corona Virus…?? 🗣What about CHICAGO!!!!!!!”). We don’t need that. It’s silly. If you care that much about the plight of Chicago please sell all your earthly possessions and become a missionary there. 😁
3. Don’t bring up the media - As the media doesn’t inform our ideas about racism. Our lives and the lives of the people we love inform our ideas. Our experiences inform our ideas. My mom is old enough to remember separate fountains. The media didn’t tell her that. SHE LIVED THAT. This is our life. So your “it’s heartbreaking…but I just wish the media wouldn’t…blah, blah, blah…” isn’t helpful.
4. Don’t try to relate - Please don’t make this about ‘the one time your cousin was beat up by a bully in a pickup truck and…’ That is the equivalent of telling a chemo patient who is nauseous about the time you had a tummy ache in 2nd grade. We’re not invalidating your tummy ache. We’re saying it’s not applicable here. A friend (Billy Dunn) posted these words: “To my African-American brothers and sisters. I see you!” That meant the world to me. It was enough.
5. Don’t Bring a Guilt Offering - your guilt helps no one. We can’t help you with it and we can’t absolve you of it. Please don’t make us.
If you are a believer in Jesus, you’ll have to take your guilt where I take my anger: TO CALVARY. It’s really the only way you’ll be helpful to your brown and black brothers and sisters. Like the Apostle Peter, let Jesus take you to a rooftop, knock you out, reveal to you your superiority, and then let Him change you. He will if you have the humility to acknowledge you actually need changing. We're dealing with anger right now. We can't handle your guilt.
Now, if all of these things seem unreasonable to you, I get it. The next merciful thing you can do is before you start the “everything isn’t about racism” posts, block any and all people of color on your friend’s list from seeing your post. That would be a merciful thing to do.
And if you're incapable of being graceful at least be merciful.
Sherri Lynn
Link: https://www.facebook.com/sherri.lynn.140
