Tracie and I were already planning tomorrow’s protest of the newly built Confederate memorial in Orange, Texas where she grew up when we were contacted a couple of young women, sisters, who live there. They wanted to organize their own protest, they told us, and they were asking for our help.

The flyer below was designed by the older of the two, a recent college grad on her way to medical school.

If two young people like them have the courage to stand up against racist iconography like the “Confederate Memorial of the Wind,” then I truly believe there’s hope for our cause.

They’ll be there with us tomorrow, from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m., as we protest Confederate flags planted along Martin Luther King, Dr. — one of the city’s main arteries — in 2017.
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Photo by Lorie Schaull (via Flickr Creative Commons).

Today, less than three miles from our home in Houston, Texas, George Floyd will be remembered by family, friends, and dignitaries at the Fountain of Praise Church.

Early this morning, Manny Fernandez, the New York Times Houston bureau chief, published this biography of Mr. Floyd. I highly recommend it.

I can’t stop thinking this morning about how George Floyd is a Christlike figure. Reading the story of his life, I learned that he had lost his way in his own desert before he decided to devote himself to helping others escape the chains of growing up poor and disenfranchised. Like Christ, he became a true martyr for social change when he was killed by those police officers. And his name, like that of Jesus, is today spoken by people across the world as a synecdoche for failed justice.

In June, 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a commencement speech at Oberlin College in Ohio. The title was “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.” Dr. King’s words resonate as deeply today as they did on a June day 55 years ago:

Let nobody give you the impression that the problem of racial injustice will work itself out. Let nobody give you the impression that only time will solve the problem. That is a myth, and it is a myth because time is neutral. It can be used either constructively or destructively. And I’m absolutely convinced that the people of ill will in our nation — the extreme rightists — the forces committed to negative ends — have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation, not merely for the vitriolic works and violent actions of the bad people who bomb a church in Birmingham, Alabama, or shoot down a civil rights worker in Selma, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, “Wait on time.” Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals. Without this hard work, time becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation. So we must help time and realize that the time is always right to do right.

G-d bless George Floyd and his family. May G-d give us the strength to “stay awake.”

Above: 60,000 people marched alongside George Floyd’s family yesterday in Houston. He was born and raised in the city’s Third Ward.

Our daughters, ages 6 and 8, are nonplussed by some of their parents’ dinner table conversations these days.

“Why would anyone be mean to someone because they are black?” asked our youngest Lila Jane the other night.

After all, they live in what the Los Angeles Times has called “the most diverse place in America,” a city where they and their parents interact with every gradation of humanity every single day.

Tracie and I are trying our best to raise them as antiracists. But at their age, it’s hard for them to grasp the terrible legacy of racism in the U.S.

How do you explain to an eight- and six-year-old that a black man from our city, not much younger than their father, was brutally killed by a police officer simply because they suspected him of possessing a counterfeit $20 bill? How do you explain that three other police officers stood idly by as the man begged for his life and passersby pleaded with them to relent?

The other night at dinner they asked us point blank what had happened to George Floyd and why.

I make a living by speaking and writing. My friends often tease me that I always have something to say about everything under the sun.

But my voice failed me in that moment. I know the answer but I could not summon the words to articulate the explanation in a way that they would understand.

It will take years for them to wrap their minds around the disgraceful, ugly history of racism in our country.

“Some white people don’t like black people,” I told them.

“Why, daddy?” they asked.

“Because some white people think they are better than them,” I said.

They love their black classmates, they protested, clearly confused by what I had just told them.

“Some white people are mean to black people because they think they are better than them,” I said again.

“Why would someone be mean to my friend L [her classmate] at school?” asked Lila Jane.

“I don’t know the answer,” I said.

“But, daddy, you know everything!” said Georgia.

“I wish I did, sweetheart,” I said running my hands through Lila Jane’s long lockdown hair. “I wish I did.”

Tracie and I are trying the best we can to teach them how to be antiracists. But right now, the best way we can do that — we believe — is by example.

A good friend of ours asked me to share the below resources here on the blog. It arrived in his inbox via MBS.works via The New Happy.

I’m still searching for an answer for our girls. Someday I hope to find it. In the meantime, we’re trying to be “better ancestors.”

Thanks for being here and please have a look at the links below.

*****

“It is not enough to be non-racist, we must be antiracist.” — Angela Davis

• If you are white, or benefit from white privilege, read this piece on white fragility in The New Yorker and consider deeply how this shows up for you. Then take 2-3 actions today from this list of 75 things white people can do for racial justice.
• The Minnesota Freedom Fund has been flooded with donations and is now encouraging people to donate their money to other Black or BIPOC led organizations.  There’s a good list here of bail funds to help support protestors who need bail money.
• Donate to George Floyd’s family’s GoFundMe.
• For Canadians, some great organizations to donate to are: The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Freedom School, Black Lives Matter, The Groundswell Fund.
• Explore this comprehensive list of ways to be an anti-racist and choose a few of the resources to engage with today.
• If you are a white woman, read this guide by Tatiana Mac. If you are a white man, read this one.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” — MLK Jr.