If You’re Asking “What Can I Do?”

For everyone who is asking, “HOW CAN I HELP?”... Please read this. And then, please hit the resource link at the end to put yourself into action. ❤️

Below, I am sharing a resource from The Tennessean. Why? Because I have repeatedly heard my friends, people who listened to my radio shows and social following say that they want to be part of a critical time in our history…but they don’t know exactly how to help!

Racism ****** sucks. I was affected early in life by seeing how oppression and baseless cruelty made people around me feel they had no value.

In high school, there were several friends and classmates that chose suicide to escape it. I can’t know their reasons, but I believe it to be because they felt they didn’t have an equal place in our world. My belief in regard to these deaths, informed my approach to how I treat every person. Because they should know their worth. They shouldn’t be so desperate for the chance to step onto a level playing field and show why they have value that it could lead to their own grief or - unbearably - the choice to simply not exist. But some made that choice. High school. Kids I knew. Kids.

In college and throughout the coming years, I began to dig deeper with my friends and learned from my black and Hispanic friends about the irrational fears they sometimes saw in the eyes of strangers. The derogatory remarks and racist behaviors they’d endured.

Once, I got patted down by a cop because I had apparently failed to pay a late fee on an expired license ticket, and that $7 had landed me a suspended license that I didn’t know about. I was in a truck with tinted windows and had a group of friends along. Another friend drove home…. I tell that story to acknowledge how freaking embarrassing and invasive that was. My plan was to note that so many of my friends started sharing stories with me about their past and they’d had multiple pat-downs - for NO reason. Embarrassing and invasive, with nothing but apparent prejudice guiding them into that frisk. That’s unacceptable. But as I was writing this paragraph, I started thinking about which friends were in that truck, and now I’m trying to remember if it was more about my friends than about me and how much of a role prejudice may have played RIGHT THERE. Maybe none. Maybe police officers always pat down people who drive with suspended licenses before sending them on their way. He “searched” my truck, too.. but maybe that one particular cop was going a little further because I was wearing Puma track pants that day and my friends made him uneasy? The fact that most of us can see why that MIGHT have been the case, is enough to know that this current moment is crucial because we need this system to change.

I’ve been fortunate to live in cities of all types - some cities were viciously divided, but - more importantly - many were melting pots compared to the Midwest towns I was raised in. New York, Chicago, Austin. So many cultures coexist there. Not necessarily co-mingling at every turn, but the dynamic heritage in each neighborhood of NYC and Chicago, in particular, allowed for so much more personal experience with each culture. Some people might think I’m a fool for how unabashedly I dove into neighborhoods, without any background knowledge. I was probably too naive to know why it wasn’t ‘smart’ to wander around certain nabes, chatting up every stranger I could find, and befriending shop owners and bus passengers. All I knew was that understanding the LIVES that created each city was an unbelievably important part of representing those lives and relating to the people living those lives when I was on-air hosting a daily show that was intended to be a bright spot for the community. I yearn to understand people. And I yearn for that because I want them to feel included.

Because of these cities, and the friends I made, I began hearing more stories. Looking at the character of the people telling me about their personal truths, it blew my mind.

I want to be louder for them! I know many of you do, too.

There are so many ways to impact change (from marching for equality, to donating to a cause, to volunteering time at organizations that promote opportunities for underserved communities, + more) and we all are learning more about how deeply-rooted racism has been in our country. I’ve spent the last week learning some of the things I didn’t know I didn’t know.

For so long, I knew I despised seeing individuals exhibiting racism. Not just of the overtly horrifying videos like the ones showing senseless, despicable murders of people like George Floyd, but the tiny comments or judgments made by coworkers or even family or friends (“You went to Crown Heights alone!!?” Or “You’ve gotta hear this joke”). I spoke up. I made it clear that I didn’t support that type of behavior and I made it clear that I was on the side of showing each person that they are valuable and important parts of our society. That’s 101. That should be what we all do, and so many of you are doing that.

Unfortunately, this goes much deeper. Some of my close friends waited years to tell me the stories of the things that have happened in their lives. Things that were clearly still too raw. Telling me these stories were people that I put on top of my list of classy, kind, intelligent, hilarious supermen and superwomen. Literally the people I am proud to be friends with because they set the bar as human beings! To find out the experiences they’ve faced and the inequality they were treated with is almost impossible to digest. If a person had taken time to afford them simple assumptions like “I bet they’re nice” or “they have equal value as every other stranger around me” would mean that these friends NEVER would have gone through this. Oh man that pisses me off to just think about again. I love these people so much and can’t understand it. But it’s so much deeper than that.

It’s not just the people who casually cross the street, so that they aren’t crossing paths with someone of another color...it’s the reason that those ignorant fears exist. It’s the reason certain people can’t empathize with the person that looks different from them. It’s the reason that certain people haven’t had experiences to gain understanding of the people who don’t look like them. This is rooted in the literal building blocks that govern - GOVERN - our communities.

Systemic racism, in many cases, is not bold and obvious. It’s sneaky and offers itself to deniability (unless you give a $*** about reality). Each example of racism from small to large needs our collective voice to affect change. And each scenario deserves attention. Please find the cause or resource (in the list of options at the link) that speaks to YOU!

The immediate changes are important - the long term changes are, too.

*Speak up: follow social media that will enlighten us and provide up-to-date information on marches and petitions in your area. For instance I follow Equal Justice Initiative, and anti-racist accounts. I’ve spent hours today, on an open forum conference call hearing perspectives and workplace experiences of black professionals and colleagues

*Donate: to foundations offering opportunities to people whose resources are not equal to yours. For instance, I love the work I’ve seen from Boys and Girls Club, A Place Called Home, and want to learn more about Nashville Peace and Justice Center.

or

*DIG IN YOUR HEELS: support an organization that will reset the foundation that systemic racism is build upon. I’ll tell you a few that I speak to me:

Equal Justice Initiative ...read into their mission, learn more about the underlying legal and systemic oppression they are fighting, and then watch “Just Mercy” if you’d like to SEE some of the story - many streamers are offering it free right now

Gideon’s Army ...learn where kids begin to see inequality of opportunity and how the system can send them straight to a predetermined path of oppressive events

No Exeptions ...as we are all horrified by the stories of bad operators, it is important to know the way that arrests, sentencing and private prison systems are operating (not as rehabilitation experiences, but rather as tools of oppression).

HERE IS THE LINK I PROMISED: This is a great starting point for causes and action on all levels. Find yours!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.tennessean.com/amp/3134181001