I Don’t Say Black Lives Matter Enough
I just started writing on Medium. I’ve composed a handful of blogs, some which detail my thoughts and experiences with my white privilege and the justice system. I received my first comment today. A man from my hometown. We do not know each other. We have never met, but what he said was the most important thing I’ve heard in a while.
“Missing from this post are 3 very important words. Black. Lives. Matter.”
Thank you for that, sir. I wrote an entire story about racism in my hometown and high school and didn’t say the words, Black Lives Matter.
You’ve shown me another example of white privilege. I told a story about my experiences and in doing so I got lost in myself and forgot that the whole point of this is that Black Lives Matter.
And Black Lives do Matter. Signs in palms say it. Voices at protests yell it. Tweets and hashtags contain it. But, in my writing and day to day conversations, I don’t say those three words enough.
I will. I am sorry that I haven’t said them enough, and I will say them more. Not to make a stranger from my home town happy, but because it’s right and I believe it. Because Black Lives Matter are 3 very important words and because they will never stop being 3 very important words.
