I see you.
I see the fear and confusion in your eyes.
And I also see the love that underlies,
and longs to do right.

I see you,
because I see myself.
I, too, being white,
know how
this sickness of whiteness
has disconnected us
from our European ancestors,
our cultural traditions,
from our bodies,
our humanity,
and our histories.

We were taught
this myth of white supremacy.
From our history books,
our teachers,
from movies and media clips,
from the lips
of people we trust.
It is not our fault
we inherited this skin,
this privilege,
this history of oppression
from which we both benefit,
and are harmed.

It is not our fault,
but it is our responsibility.
To repair,
to undo,
to dismantle
this white body supremacy.
To lift the knee we have
placed on the necks of Black people
for the last four centuries.

Instead,
we have upheld it with our silence
and our complicity.
Don’t you see that
the violence will continue
if our tongues stay mute?

My dear White people,
Your voice is needed.
Our clear seeing is needed.
Our truth-telling is needed,
now, more than ever,
so that we can help to weave a new narrative
for this country,
for our world,
for the children.
A narrative that weaves us all together,
leaving no one out.

But first,
we must pry open our eyes.
We must crack open our hearts.
We must feel and see and sense
the Black bodies,
the Indigenous bodies,
the Brown bodies that
we have left for dead,
in the wake of our denial.

The road will not be clear.

It will not be easy.
We will get lost and not know what to do,
or the right thing to say.
There will be stones and branches and obstacles
on the path.
We will stumble and fall.
It might be tempting to turn back,
go back down easy street –
to the one that was paved for us.

But we cannot go back, only through.
We can make of this time a portal,
and we can walk through it together.
We can lift each other up,
and call each other in.
We can tell the truth.
We can pay reparations.
We can defund the police.
Dismantle the prisons.
Divest from this empire.
Walk together in the fire
of uncertainty.
Invest in solidarity.
Let go of white fragility.
Practice centered accountability.
Stand tall in our dignity.
Eradicate this sickness of whiteness
from our blood and bone and tissue.
We can heal!

My Dear white people,
Don’t go back to sleep.
It is time to wake up
to the truth!
We are at the tipping point.

I need you.
We need you.
We need each other.
Let us deserve to be needed!

We are all woven together
and we are bound for freedom
if we choose.

And we must choose.

So choose wisely,
my people.

Choose Love.