Dear White America

As I scrolled through Facebook yesterday and today, I noticed that summer is in full swing and by the looks of it everyone is enjoying theirs. Strawberry picking, ice cream outings, swimming at the lake and gorgeous family photos have flooded my news feed. It looks like allot of fun, but I need your attention for just a moment. Please.

I know you all saw the hashtags #AltonSterling and #BlackLivesMatter at least once yesterday. You probably also watched the video of the Alton Sterling shooting at least once as well. You maybe saw the press release video, where Alton Sterling's 15 year old son breaks down weeping for his dad. How many of you saw the black community though? I mean really saw.

The black community is hurting. So I need us to pause our summertime fun, and sympathize. Because in our white privileged world we get to wake up to news feeds filled with sunshine and strawberries, while black people are waking up to news feeds filled with shots and screams. On their feeds the same videos are shared, played and repeated, over and over and over, until the tears are pouring with every shot fired. In response there are posts of anger, rally's to raise their children well, arguments rising out of peer distress, cries for peace and mourning, so much mourning. Black people are trying to make sense of what is going on in their communities, trying to stop patterns that are threatening to repeat simply by the hand society has dealt them, trying to remain strong and uplifted despite how the media portrays them.

A group of people are trying to break social norms, but we are neither looking nor listening. Therefore, I am begging you to do two things for me. One, do not take everything the media throws at you to be the truth. Do your research for yourself, in humility, and without cultural imperialism. Secondly, take on a compassionate outlook, and come along side your brothers and sisters. Set aside your sunshine and strawberries, listen to the shots and screams, so that you may understand why the black community is mourning. Why we should all be mourning.