I can only imagine how maddening this must be.  To think that 400 years ago from your ancestor’s very first shackled steps off of the transatlantic slave trade ships and onto the rich soil of the land of the free, that you were already labeled less than and legal property because of the way you look.  I am so sorry, friend.  That was wrong in the utmost sense of the word—evil, sinful, despicable.  But still you persevered.  You pushed through and pressed on, sitting on buses where you were not welcome and eating at counters that served nothing but hatred and hostility.  You’ve obliged yourselves under a societal contract you had no choice to sign and fought to integrate into a country not built for your success.  What a powerful testament that is to you and your people and your tenacity.  Think on that.  Be proud of that.

Now I say all that not to lecture you but to remind me, to feel the gravity and acknowledge the reality of the continued hatred within this nation.   I certainly do not have the capacity to empathize with nor can I  understand how frustrated the black community must feel right now.  I cannot fix.  I do not know.  Yet, still I will write.  I write to call out and condemn the injustices against you, my black brothers and sisters who have tried everything from taking a stand to taking a knee, to protesting peacefully and then also resorting to by any means necessary.  I write to reach out.  I write to check in, to offer the very little that I am able to—a listening ear, a humble heart, and an unspeakably deep desire to make things right and to care for my friends well.  

Given all of that, it is not above me to come to the table with my own biases and sometimes my foot in my mouth.  I can only ask instructed Christians and you dear friends to watch me carefully and tell me when I go wrong.  That being said, I am here for the messy heart conversations.  I want to help alleviate and eliminate the burden of this collective hurt. I don’t always know what to do or what to say or how to act, but, if you would have me as an ally and a friend, consider this my 400-word roundabout way of saying, “Count me in.  I am with you.”  Because I do indeed see color.  And I honor it.  I celebrate that color and support you, and I want to learn how to do it better.