"The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone" - 2Pac

On the surface, I am a visible minority. According to every school form, or important form that I have had to fill out within the past couple years, state that I am a visible minority. However, I was raised by white parents, a white family and largely a white community. With this in mind, I will never understand what a black person will face in their everyday life. I will never fear for my life the way they do.

In a time like this, I think that it is very important that, especially as young people, we need to EDUCATE others who do not understand and EDUCATE individuals who may share a different opinion than our own. Yes, every life matters. #blacklivesmatter trending once again on Twitter should be a wake up call to the rest of us that this is a topic that MUST be resolved. How many more lives is it going to take before older generations and even our own, are able to recognize that their lives matter JUST as much as ours do.

As a part of the majority, it is OUR responsibility to make change within our society. Discrimination against black people goes back CENTURIES. I don't care if you think it's a difficult conversation to be had. I don't care if you cry while you talk about it. This conversation MUST be had.

How would you like it if it was your child, or your family member that was a victim of police brutality? The reality of that statement is that yes, you would be sad, angry, frustrated, the list of feelings could go on. BUT the chances of you receiving a fair trial, or justice for that family member is FAR greater than the trial and justice that is currently being served towards MANY members of the black community.

As many of my followers are Canadian, this is NOT an excuse to exclude us from this narrative. Police brutality, racism and injustice are taking place in our country too .To Toronto girls, and the girls that are considering yourselves to be "hood" or use "Toronto Slang" who are NOT members of the black community, I suggest that you read the following article: https://magazine.utoronto.ca/research-ideas/culture-society/do-you-know-toronto-slang/ or https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/2019/grad-research-the-origin-of-toronto-slang/ to educate yourselves on where this "Toronto lingo" comes from. Because no, you're not being "trendy" you're indirectly being racist. It doesn't matter if your friends "support it" or "know that you’re kidding". Those are NOT excuses. The reality is that it is offensive.

Let me put this into perspective for you. This is what our society thinks right now:

If a White person kills a Black person it's self defence.

If a Black person kills a White person it's murder

If a Black person kills a Black person it's gang violence

If a White person kills another White person it's an accident

If a Muslim kills a White person they are a terrorist

If a White person kills a Muslim they have mental health issues.

None of that is okay. I want those of you who actually take the time to read this WHOLE piece to really step back and think.

Don't just be a bystander, if you can teach your child to stand up to a bully at school, you can teach your child to stand up for BASIC human rights. But this goes for you too; you need to take action, share a post, help educate others, help your child understand what is happening. Donate, if you can afford to, sign petitions (which EVERYONE can do, not all of them ask for all of your personal information), watch a movie with your kids, watch the news with them. Just PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help educate them because they are the ones that are going to have to live in our society in 20 years and further into the future. This is no longer just something that is "trending" on Twitter. This is a problem that needs to be solved NOW. It is a topic that is NOT taboo, but rather a topic that is too important to go unspoken about

So, now you ask yourself, well, what can I do? I have compiled a list of resources that I have come across over the past couple weeks that are VERY important to educate ourselves about how we can make a change. Please take the time to read the article, order a book, watch a movie or even the trailer to help yourself and others around you learn about what you can do.

I have also learned about 8 things that White people can do that are FREE:

1. Recognize your privilege

2. Don't remain silent (who cares if you loose followers, likes, shares whatever it might be for SPEAKING up on a topic that is IMPORTANT. If people don't like what you're posting because they believe differently, you don't need them in your life.)

3. DO YOUR RESEARCH (take time to actually look through the resources I have provided, look through resources you stumble across in the news, on Instagram, Facebook - however you get your information. Just do the research, we all know that you have the time.)

4. Text justice lines

5. Sign petitions (although this might seem like a scary thing, this can have a HUGE impact)

6. Respect Black culture

7. Be a decent human being

8. DO SOMETHING. ANYTHING (whether it's sharing a post, learning for yourself or to help your child understand, just do something.

I titled this blog post the way that I did because I wanted to draw attention to the fact that your actions as parents, older siblings and young adults makes a HUGE impact on generations to come. The quote from 2Pac because the reality is that our actions and the actions of our parents are going to affect generations to come. I got the inspiration from the movie (which I linked in the google doc above). This movie had a big impact on how I saw this issue and I suggest that you watch it.

I am asking you to take the time to educate yourselves because the reality is, we are all still quarantining, we HAVE the time to learn for ourselves and learn to help educate others around us. Yes, the conversation is difficult, but the conversation is one that MUST be had. If you want any more resources to further educate yourself, reach out to me and I can provide you with more information as I see it. One last thing, if you are going to participate in an in-person protest, please remember we are still in a global pandemic, and it is REALLY important to take every safety precaution you can to help stop the spread of COVID.

-K