Are you #listening?

I’m coming fresh out of #blackouttuesday with a message for my peers: The box so many of us posted earlier this week was a nice gesture, but ultimately an empty one unless we’re ready to back it up with real, meaningful action. And by that I do not mean #listening or #learning or any of those other buzz words that people often use when they want to buy time and not do the work. Quite frankly, anyone posting the black box has already listened and learned enough to know that things need to change. These people are ready to teach. They are ready to act. They are ready to lead.

I know my audience, which is to say that I know most everyone who follows this blog is, at a minimum, listening or learning (or part of my family and just here for the pictures). And I would like to use this platform to ask you to level up. Whatever you are doing right now, take it one step further.

If you are listening, try speaking.

If you are speaking, try acting.

If you are acting, try leading.

Don’t get caught up on what you can’t do—just find a way, any way, to move the agenda forward.

If you can’t protest, donate.

If you can’t donate, petition.

If you can’t petition, then go back to listening because you still have a lot of learning to do.

Make it personal.

Don’t give your friends and family a pass because “they’re old” or “that’s just the way they were raised.”

Don’t let people wander off to the relative comfort of Caveat Hill to wring their hands about peacefulness or respect for authority.

Don’t let anyone chalk this whole thing up to “a few bad apples” without reminding them that the rest of the saying is “will spoil the whole lot.”

Keep yourself in check…. Especially if you are a white woman like me.

Amplify the voices that know these issues better than you do.

Don’t expect effusive praise or thanks when you give someone your time, attention or money.  

Keep listening and learning… so that you can be a more effective teacher and actor.

In solidarity.