Stand out. Stand up. Read up. Read some more...There are ugly truths about “whites” and our treatment of our black and beautiful friends... many of the facts are very hard to digest... perhaps indigestible, for sure nauseating and impossible for me to relate to... it’s time to move though...WAY past time...to move from “whiteness” and the so-called American Dream. The Dream should have been for everyone from the beginning of time... but humanity intervened across the centuries... elitism took over, privilege and self-anointed and appointed class reigned then and now...Use hashtags if you must, but remember, a hashtag is just that, and our fellow brothers and sisters of color don’t need hashtags, they need freedom...not from their history and its significance to their culture and strength but unrelenting freedoms to walk and live freely and fully without labels, assumptions, prejudice, profiling or targeting. This is a very hard lesson for me to learn because I have discovered hidden, subconscious prejudices of my own that slithered into my thinking and rational like the snake that slithers through the grass and catches you unaware. I want to scream. This seditious reptile is poison and I want nothing to do with it anymore, but I have a journey to take and a snake whose head needs to be chopped off and smothered for eternity. The suffering and pain of my fellow black and brown human beings has been and is intolerable, outrageously inappropriate and deadly. I love you black men, women and children. I will be part of the revolution. I will stand up and speak out on your behalf, and I will do so with knowledge from listening to you, reading your works of poetry, print, letters and books. If you, yourself, are looking for a place to start your education or continue it, I highly recommend @tanehisipcoates and his book #betweentheworldandme This was a very hard book for me to read, but it has been revolutionary, mind blowing and enlightening. Next up is @austinchanning and her book #imstillhereblackdignityinaworldmadeforwhiteness “Color is what makes the world beautiful, and it should always be seen because, that’s where Love lives.” LLD 6/5/20