The Recommencement of America

The unanimous Declaration
of the fifty United States of America
and the five U.S. territories,
When in the Course of human events,
it becomes necessary for one people

Black Live Matter

We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all people are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Black Live Matter

That to secure these rights,
To which Laws of Nature
and of Nature’s God entitle them
Governments derive their just powers
from the consent of the governed,

Black Lives Matter

That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People
to alter or to abolish it,
in such form,
as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Hate Crimes Prevention Act
Breonna’s Law
Michael Brown Law
Oh, yeah, that one didn’t pass
Police still don’t have to wear body cams
Black Lives Matter

But when there is a long train
of abuses and usurpations,
it is their right,
it is their duty,
to abolish the forms
to which they are accustomed,
to throw off such Government,
and to provide new Guards
for their future security,

Black Lives Matter

In every stage of these Oppressions
Black Bodies have Petitioned for Redress
in the most humble terms:
Black People’s repeated Petitions
have been answered only by repeated injury.

Black Lives Matter

Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world
for the rectitude of our intentions,
of Right ought to be Free and Independent;
And for the support of this Declaration,

Black Lives Matter

With a firm reliance on the protection
of divine Providence,
we mutually pledge to each other
our Lives,
our Fortunes and
our sacred Honor.

Black Lives Matter

America, let us recommence.

Taken from the Declaration of Independence

Today is Sunday, Day 110 in Bahrain, day 75 of The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad. The prompt is by recent high school graduate, Lincoln Debenham: “Write your own commencement speech for whoever needs it—whether it’s your own graduate, family, or community. Your change making could start here, with your own words.”

Me and White Supremacy

We need to talk about white supremacy. Not in the “bad” people, but in our own white selves.

Let’s start today, not just in New Zealand. But in America or wherever we are.

White supremacy has been with us throughout our nation’s history.

Through slavery…leasing convicts…lynchings and other racial terrorism…Jim Crow…racial hierarchy…racial profiling…mass incarceration.

When I was a baby, Martin Luther King, Jr., pleaded with white moderates:  “If you fail to act now, history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”

Why didn’t I talk about America’s wealth being built with the blood and sweat of enslaved black people?

Why didn’t I talk about “good” people standing by and watching?

Why didn’t I talk about anti-blackness and white supremacy?

With my parents?

With my friends?

With my own children?

Though I didn’t articulate I was better than black people, I don’t remember ever articulating I wasn’t.

There is no such thing as being colorblind when it comes to racism.

My silence was complicity. White silence. White apathy. White centering. White privilege.

Complicity in white supremacy.

I am white, and I need to own it.

I am white, and through my acceptance of America’s original sin, I am a white supremacist.

Now, I have work to do.

Thanks, Rachel, Bryan, Layla, Josie, Clint, Jen, Mike, Jillian, Myisha, Dr. King, and all the others who are inspiring the dismantling of racism.*

 

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🌿 take a moment today to consider how you show up.

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*More I’m Learning From

17 Inspirational Quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr., About Speaking Up When it Matters

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Justice in America Podcast with Josie Duffy Rice and Clint Smith

Speaking of Racism Podcast with Jen Kinney

Instagram: @Rachel.Cargle, @Laylafsaad, @morethanmiked, @ckyourprivilege, @degan_art