Listen

Today my 3 year old threw a toy. She doesn’t normally do this. She had been trying to get my attention for several minutes. She called for me over and over, and I was ignoring her. I threw her a couple, “one second’s”, and “hold on’s” but I wasn’t listening to what she needed. My brain was buried in my phone and all that’s going on. After showing much patience, and making several kind, appropriate attempts she finally threw something and yelled “MOMMY LISTEN TO ME!”. I finally stopped what I was doing and attended to her… the problem was not that she threw something. the problem was that I wasn’t listening or acting on what she needed. And it took her throwing something to get my attention.

When people cry out for help, for justice and are repeatedly ignored – they either get louder or they accept defeat. There’s no other choice. I’m not trying to minimize the riots by comparing them to my 3 year old’s frustration – but the process of “getting louder” in order to be heard is not something new at all. It’s been used all throughout history to create change. So rather than thinking, “these riots need to stop, they aren’t helping”. What if you asked yourself, “How did we get here? How have we ignored cries for justice for so long, that it has come to this? And how can I now listen?”.

Black people are crying out for you to listen. They have endured unfair treatment by law enforcement throughout history. Parents train their black children how to interact with law enforcement in hopes that they are not perceived as dangerous. Black people avoid calling the police in situations where they should, out of fear that something could go wrong. As a white person, I couldn’t imagine living in this reality – and I’ll never fully understand it.

The riots are not the problem. They are a consequence of the problem being ignored. It’s time to listen.

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