It’s easy to sit and judge people that are protesting as wrong or counterproductive. It’s easy because we don’t feel “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Easy to judge, but too hard to stand up and demand changes. We’ve waited too long, had ample time to eradicate the vile plague that is racism, plenty of time to root out the supposed “bad apples” from our police departments. It seems we’ve grown comfortable with the rot and lack the courage to stand up to it. Our privilege allows us to look the other way; our conscience shouldn’t. Racism, ingrained in our systems and in our psyche, is still here. People still live in fear and are still dying unnecessarily, and that’s solely on us.
My wife, Ivy, is a person of color, a woman of color. She’s seen, felt and experienced things that I’ll never be able to fully understand. Racism isn’t a problem to be solved by communities of color. Racism is a white people’s problem and mustn’t require communities of color to meet us in the middle in compromise.
It’s on us to learn, listen, change our hearts and systems, demand systematic changes to our communities, governments, schools and businesses.
Dan Powell
Salt Lake City