The words I couldn't say- STOP KILLING US

Today, May 27, 2020 on my IGTV I made an attempt to say these words out loud. But I couldn't get them out, not in the fullness of the way I wanted to. So I am taking a moment to drop them here. 

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Whether you believe in God or not, this is a truth that grounds me and has been so eloquently written by Ps. Brian Houston in his book, Live Love Lead, "... we are made in God's image as relational beings, created to belong, to serve, to worship, and to live in community."

If COVID-19 teaches us anything, it's that we are more connected than some of us would like to admit. We are seeing the real impact of our actions and choices in someone else's life. 

#StopKillingUs has been a rallying cry for me, but it's bigger than the "us" that looks like me. 

I believe that there is a God, whose perfect plan is the reconciliation of His creation to Him and then to each other. 

The Bible talks about the Body of Christ and this beautiful representation of a body. When you put into perspective the various parts of the body and all their roles and responsibilities to make the body whole, it is a beautiful illustration of who we are in Christ and who we are as a COMMUNITY. The Bible highlights when there are pieces of the body missing, that the body won't function at its best. 

When you think about your body when it is sick, the body will attack itself, trying to kill out what should not be present. 

Applying this illustration with natural eyes to the recent story out of Minneapolis, MN, then yes, 4 officers killed a man who didn't deserve death--- insert any act that ends in someone's life being taken. At the end of that narrative, a life is lost. 

I cry out and grieve for the significant loss of life, because the Body of Christ lost a member. A member that would have been a perfect fit for this Body. I cry out because the body is attacking itself! 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr has a quote about his freedom being inextricably linked to that of another. When will we get it that the virus of racism is killing ALL of us! We are all dying at it's sight. 

This body is ACHING! 

This body is BLEEDING!

This body, OUR BODY, is WOUNDED AND NEEDS HEALING.

It needs the healing of knowing we are meant to be in community with each other. 

It needs the healing of knowing we can't survive this life without each other.

It needs healing.

We need healing.

My body needs healing

MY SOUL CRIES OUT!

His name was George Floyd, "He Couldn't Breathe."

MY SOUL CRIES OUT! 

 

We just need to grow up

Normally I do not pay attention or take certain websites so seriously. However, this #BuzzFeed article caught my attention as it flooded my Facebook news feed with words associated to it like "Disgusting" "Outraged" "Angered" "Disturbed..." and so on and so on.

Clearly my friends were in a rage about something and I wanted to know what it was.

So I read the following post http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/a-lot-of-people-are-very-upset-that-an-indian-american-woman with the title " A Lot of people are very upset that an Indian-American woman won the Miss America Pageant". As I began to read the brief and started to scroll through the highlighted tweets, I found myself beginning to be really disturbed by the comments and the feedback that was being made.

Here we are again 2013 dealing with the very real fact that there are people in this country who continue to talk to me as a young "Black" woman in America, that my plight in that is no longer critical. I am constantly bombarded with messaging that racism does not exist in this country. But an post pointing out the very real responses of several ignorant people, leaves me wanting to shake those people and say " You will NEVER get it!" and "Your continued ability to be blind to it, continues to allow the space for ignorance and stupidity, like this to prevail."

 I will give room to the fact that this post only highlighted the negatives, but did not highlight any comments that might have been positive post the announcement.

I don't want to get angry anymore, I want a solution to how we overcome statements like these and how we as a country don't celebrate the successes of individuals who achieve so much. My solution, I continue to encourage and develop young women around me to be proud of who they are, to be proud of their individualism, to be proud of their background and where they came from. We live in a country that has a mass amount of power and potential and to keep being metaphorically punched in the face when things like this come out is disgusting, degrading and overall annoying.

To the individuals who made these comments, thank you for reminding me that our work is NOT at all done. And that there are still some very valuable lessons that need to be learned. We have work to do and I plan on being a voice for that work.