Triggered
STEVE: I’m white and I’m male. My only kinks are that I’m Jewish and I have a comfortable shoe fetish. I’m privileged to communicate that. Um… oh, and my name’s Steve.
GROUP: Hi Steve.
STEVE: I grew up in West Des Moines, IA. I was taught to believe that we’re all the same. Race, creed, color, ethnicity, gender, religion, etc — doesn’t matter — deep down we’re all just human beings who bleed red and have the same number of bones. In school we learned about racism and civil rights. It synched up with what I learned at home. Cool. It was going to be a better world.
But in 9th grade I remember they caught Wayne Williams — the person believed responsible for the Atlanta Child Murders. It was a big deal. It was all over the news. I watched as they brought him in on TV. There were people screaming and yelling, shaking their fists. But the thing that left a mark was that in addition to the adults yelling the N word, there were kids yelling the N word, too. It blew my innocent mind. I remember thinking, “What the heck? Those kids are MY age. Are the schools not all teaching the same things?”
That memory was triggered today because I saw a video of a girl pushing back on her parent’s racism. Pretty sure her parents are my age…
GROUP LEADER: Keep going.
STEVE: When #BlackLivesMatter first surfaced 7 years ago, I automatically went to, “Hey, whoa, c’mon, ALL lives matter.” But then I got on Twitter and was like, “Oh, wait. My bad.”
GROUP LEADER: Uh huh.
STEVE: But just to be clear, I’m not virtue signaling. And I’m not woke. (I’m groggy at best.) I’m sharing because I believe there is always something to learn and uncover, something to do and make better…
Anti-racist resources
Black businesses to support
Where to donate
Petitions to sign
Bail funds, legal aid
Additional BLM support
Systemic Racism Explained
Oprah & Jane Elliot
White Privilege photoessay
A performance by Dave for his song ‘Black’ that I saw today for the first time and I’m still like…. OMFG WOW! 🔥🔥🔥
STEVE: That’s it.
GROUP: Thanks Steve.
GROUP LEADER: That’s a lot of links, man.
STEVE: I know, but we were told not to bring snacks.
🖤💪🏼🇺🇸
Protests around the world
Police taking a knee
Police breaking a knee
