Disclaimer: I’m not an educator, not an expert, I’m not perfect.
So with that disclaimer here are some lines with my perspective:
1. Humanity is actually not doomed, but it is improving and moving forward.
You are 100% percent right, 1 single case is 1 case too many and we shouldn’t stop addressing this situation until there is 0 people being affected by our systemic racism. That is a fact. We shouldn’t stop bringing this up and fighting for justice until there is no need to demand justice because no innocent people is getting scared, stopped, blocked, murdered by our systemic racism.
It is important to acknowledge that things have and continue to improve throughout the years just for the fact that it gives us all hope that all these historical efforts, strikes, energy and movements are actually having an impact.
Being aware that these movements have an actual real impact on society and how we are evolving as humans is actually what motivates us to keep participating in these movements, to keep bringing important matters that need urgent change up, to make our voices heard.
If we don’t acknowledge that we together can have and are having an impact in these issues then what would be the motivation to do so?
Do your research and acknowledge how things have actually been improving dramatically throughout the years, even with the bumps in the road of having racists leaders in power.
Read Factfullness.
This book is not about #BLM but it gives an overall view of humanity’s issues and how the numbers and the facts show dramatic constant growth and improvement throughout the years.
I recommend you to read it and to give it as a gift to anyone that has ever said “nothing has changed” or even worse: “Nothing will change”.
We have to be aware of the facts to actually understand that we have the power to change things and to make things better for everyone around us. So people don’t take the “easy” choice of becoming indifferent and doing nothing because anyways “things will never change”.
2. We are all part of the systemic racism we live in.
No mater which country you live in, no matter what color your skin has, no matter how privileged or unprivileged you feel, we are all part of the system.
It doesn’t mean we are all racists, it just means that we are all in this together, and if we want real change we need to accept that even when it might be non-intentional, we are all living in the same system that has oppressed people simply because of the color of their skin.
Acknowledging this is a huge step forward, it will bring our consciousness to it in our every day life and be more aware in how are we contributing for change and for equal opportunities for everyone regardless of their skin color.
This shouldn’t bring a feeling of guilt but a feeling of empowerment because the fact that you are part of the system means that you have the power to have an impact in the system. So take that awareness and turn it into empowerment to make a difference from now on.
3. You are not GOD. You are just an imperfect Human like everyone else.
Accepting this releases you from:
1. Having to be perfect and know it all from the beginning to the end and
2. Policing other people that are trying to help by telling them that (from your perspective) they are doing things wrong. And becoming a bully and harasser towards other humans that are simply and imperfectly learning how to contribute in their own way.
(If you find that some people are actually trying to work against an equal society it is ok to call them out)
Always remembering that you don’t have the full picture, or the full answer so learn to be as humble as every imperfect human should be.
This movement suddenly turned into shaming anyone trying to be part of the conversation, trying to support the movement, some people decided that in their personal perspective if they were doing it right or wrong and if they were doing anything considered not perfect they try to destroy them in every way..
Policing on people trying to be part of change won’t construct anyone, use your passion and anger and energy on this matter to manifest, to bring people together with you towards evolution towards a better world where all humans have the same opportunities.
Remember that even yourself with all your passion, knowledge and resources are not perfect and even when you might have the best of intentions and actions you can make some mistakes on the way because you are allowed to, you are human. And your fellow change makers will be there to support you and guide you throughout it all. So please stop wasting so much energy in hating on people trying to be part of the change.
So what can we do to be part of the change? A lot!
– Listen.
– Do real introspection. Start with your own perspectives, learnings development; What do you need to “unlearn”? What do you need to reconstruct? …
– Bring this awareness into your every day vocabulary, family life, profesional development,
– Donate if you can.
Where? How? I encourage you to google it. There are thousands of resources, books, articles, experts and educators.
Just like it works with coding; if you are truly interested you will google it and figure it out.
4.Why movements might “require” violence?
Violence in the streets is the physical expression of pain, oppression, and desperation.
These movements have a small group that end up destroying shops, businesses, monuments, and sometimes even hurting people, and I agree it is horrible, and there can be some reasons:
1. They’ve had used every other pacific language before and were not listened to, they have lost all hope in life because they got their loved ones murdered in the worst possible way.
And, historically:
2. Until these movements affect physically every person in society, meaning: no one can drive through because they are blocking streets, businesses loosing it all because of riots, monuments that we see everyday when we walk by being destroyed. Until it affect every single person in society including the ones who are safely at home watching this one the news, until we all feel affected, hurt, blocked, offended, thats when we all start caring and it becomes impossible to turn our faces away from the problem.
Yes, it is UNFAIR:
It is unfair to the business owners who got robbed, it is unfair to the person who might have died in the ambulance because it couldn’t reach the hospital in time due to the manifestation traffic, it is unfair to everyone being affected in anyway, 100% unfair. The same way it is unfair to keep looking the other way when innocent humans keep dying with no consequences, no justice, no impact. This is a reminder that we are all in this together and what happens to one minority literally affects us ALL.
So before you so confidently generalize and “condemn violence”, Lower your voice and try to understand what could have put people in this position of wanting to burn it all.
Just for 10 seconds try, if you do this, just open your mind and heart to try to understand their why, you have walked a long way into empathy and compassion.
and lastly but most importantly:
Why we Say their names:
George Floyd , Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Botham Jean, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Jordan Davis, Jonathan Ferrell, …
Innocent humans that died in the hands of systemic racism are the famous names representing thousands or millions of people living terrible experiences due to systemic racism throughout their lives, and throughout the world every single day.
Say their names so we remember that a fellow innocent human was robbed of his/her life for no reason and that we still have work on our own to do, we still have justice to demand for and that this movement (like every movement looking for equality and human wellbeing) is not over until NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND again.
In Mexico we have so many names being forgotten, humans getting murdered just because of their gender and vulnerability and that’s why we march, that’s why in each movement we say their names, so their death is not ignored and forgotten, so their death contributes to our pain to demand change in ourselves, in our society in our world.
The Yogi Coder 