🗣Your black friend is trying to be ok. In the midst of a global pandemic, your black friend is trying to maintain a sense of normalcy.
Your Black friend in the past 30 days has watched a Black man get shot dead while jogging (Ahmaud Arbery); a Black woman get shot dead while sleeping (Breona Taylor); and the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Your Black friend has also listened to leaders use words that are divisive and used as a veiled threat. Your Black friend is worried about their children, their homes, their jobs, their livelihood. Your Black friend is scared and wonders why they haven’t heard from you.
Your Black friend is trying to be ok.
Please don’t ask us about the looting.
Please don’t chastise us about the rioting.
Please don’t tell us that all lives matter.
Please don’t minimize our fear.
Please don’t bring up Black on Black crime.
Please don’t ask “What about Chicago?”
Please don’t say “if you’d just act like (A Wildly Successful Black Person… Usually Oprah, Obama, Colin Powell, Denzel or Will Smith)”. Please don’t judge us
Your Black friend is trying to be ok.
Listen to your Black friend.
Empathize with your Black friend.
Support your Black friend.
Pray for your Black friend.
Pray with your Black friend.
Just let your Black friend know you really care.
Your Black friend will remember who truly had their back during this difficult time. They will remember who was more concerned about a looted Target. They will remember you posting a thinly veiled and offensive meme. They will remember name calling and insensitive comments. They will remember your silence about their Black life and the Black Lives of others. They will remember those they called friends and supported, and their hearts will hurt because now they’ve lost them as well.
It’s real easy.
Do whatever you can to help your Black friend out because your Black friend is TRYING to be ok….. 👂
Contributor: Author Unknown
