Recent events surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement have me feeling like I am carrying the weight of a 50lb backpack as I move throughout the day. While I can’t truly know for sure, I can imagine that this is the weight Black Americans carry around All.The.Time.
White privilege might allow me to take off this heavy backpack but I won’t. I commit to keeping it on as we walk together through this time. In fact, I’d like to take it off of the back of at least one person who has been carrying it for far too long. It’s my turn to carry this weight.
This article helped me better understand the psychological toll and repeated stress experienced by the Black community. It’s time for this to stop.
When talking about racial inequality, don’t forget the gap of black stress
“We have to tell our children things that white parents don’t. We have to give our children this armor that white parents don’t have to give their children. And, in a way, it takes away some of their childhood. But what choice do we have? This is generational. Four hundred years of being black in this country is having to prepare our children for a life that other Americans don’t have to deal with.”
