Best Thing I Read Last Week

“we’re feeling pretty speechless about the current state of things. Though, maybe speechless isn’t the best way to describe it. It might be that we feel ill-equipped to speak to something as large and complex as the systematic racism that this country was founded on and that we are complacent in. As we write this, there are protests happening all over the country. It’s likely that we would be out there protesting too if it weren’t for fears over the pandemic, but that is nothing more than an excuse and another manifestation of our privilege. We’re taking this time to listen and learn from the people that actually have the authority to speak about racism. People that live through it everyday, think deeply about it because they don’t have the privilege of ignoring it, and dedicate their lives to changing the systems that got us here. It’s okay to have nothing to say, but there’s no excuse for not listening. Don’t let the news coverage and the looting distract from the actual reasons why people are in the streets in the first place. Listen to activists and the scholars. Educate yourself on how to be an ally to people of color everyday and not just during times of extreme upheaval. This is not a new issue. It’s ingrained in evert part of American life and I guarantee that there are things you are doing consciously or unconsciously to contribute to the problem. We all are. It’s complicated! It’s hard! You have to work for it. We have to work for it. I have to work for it. So let’s get to work.”

– Excerpt from Letter from the Editors in “The Smudge” Volume 4, Issue 6

Image sourced from Pinterest, Artist: James Cullen