Many people can affirm the phrase Black Lives Matter but are quick to hate on the organization that made this phrase popular. 

… instead of searching for and magnifying what we don’t agree on, what would be the worst that would happen if we identify and magnify elements we can agree on in the name of redemption? 

Cancel-culture is counter-productive to racial reconciliation. In the fight for justice, we need to learn to preserve our relationships through hard conversations and grace.

My story starts pre-Civil Rights (in the ‘40s and ‘50s), as I was raised in a middle-class white household, fairly standard, though my dad was a tavern owner (a bit of an unusual job in our suburb). I was raised around more Black people than most because my dad employed them. 

As children, we do not have a choice about whom we grow up around and what influences we are exposed to. Around the globe, personal experiences related to other races and cultures are not only varied but are also vastly different. We can look upon our differences as dividing factors, or we can listen, learn, and begin to appreciate and acknowledge both the beauty and the pain that comes from them. While moving from point A to Z is not a simple feat, perhaps we can start by recognizing one thing we all have in common: we have yet to experience sustained harmony among all people groups. 

As the COVID-19 dust seemingly began to settle, a chilling and heartbreaking video surfaced of George Floyd being slowly strangled for eight minutes by the knee of an officer with his hands in pockets. He begged for the basic right to breathe. The words that he struggled to release that have now become symbolic and forever tattooed on our memory was a phrase that went completely ignored: “I can’t breathe.”