Listen, learn, serve, be an ally, do the work. I’ve been having conversations with black friends, reading black writers, listening to black voices, sharing black content, paying black artists, signing petitions to support black lives, making calls to advocate for black lives, and collaborating with black community members. It’s not enough to use the hashtag or post a graphic; what are you doing to actively be anti-racist and fight the ingrained systems that target, oppress, exhaust, stifle, threaten, destroy, imprison and kill black people daily? And therein erode humanity, culture, society, nations. What are you doing with the privilege and position, access and resources, know-how and connections, voice and body, life force and rights you possess? Nothing is enough, nothing can bring back lives, nothing can end racism, nothing equates to justice, but concrete action past/present/future is indeed something. And so, as I texted a friend and colleague following our meandering phone conversation today about our Conscious Kitchen food program where he is on the ground daily, the heavy state of this world and trying moments in time, and the realities of being a black man in America, in California, in Marin County — where he lives, leads and labors, alongside many fellow black men — “nothing is enough, but I’ll recommit to the work.” I respect, appreciate and learn from him, as I do countless powerful black Americans who I know personally and from afar. It is no accident that the most vulnerable pockets of need here in our community are black and brown, that the populations disproportionately affected by Covid are black and brown, that the places hit hardest by environmental injustice are black and brown, that the people facing chronic health crises are black and brown, that those suffering most from economic downturns are black and brown. This boy — and every child, every human — deserves to live a full, safe, healthy and joyous life, not be hunted, lynched or murdered for "being while black."
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