Angry. Heartbroken. Worried. Sick and tired of being sick and tired. That’s where I’ve been living since the news of #GeorgeFloyd broke.
I have such a diverse friend group, social media following, and congregation that sometimes I just avoid posting about what I’m feeling because I just can’t…
Yet, I have a responsibility, as a public theologian, to call my sphere of influence to action.
I wrote this post earlier in the week and just sat on it because I just didn’t want to deal with the “but…” posts or the silence of my “friends.”
I can’t sit on it anymore… This is my EVERYDAY reality. Every time I leave my house, I wonder if I will make it home safely. Every time my brother or father are out, I worry that they won’t make it home. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY!
God’s people are precious. Black people are precious. Black Lives Matter. Black people deserve to get home safely every day!
The truth of the matter is this: Racism is rampant in America. I saw a quote: “Racism is so American that if you fight racism, people think you’re fighting America.” Yet, we know from the experience of life that if you are not fighting the problem, you are part of the problem. It’s not enough to be “good people” anymore. We need- I need- anti-racist people to speak up and fight for justice.
I see your outrage over Colin Kaepernick. (By the way, his kneeling was never about the flag, the anthem, or America. It was always about the murder – the modern day lynching – of black people just for breathing (or not breathing) in America.) I see your outrage over having to wear a mask. I see your armed militias allowed to take over government buildings with no consequences, excessive force, or arrests. I see you threatening people because they don’t agree with your politics. I see you. We see you. God sees you, too.
Yet, I long for your outrage regarding the death of #GeorgeFloyd and #AhmaudArbery and so many others. I long for your outrage toward #AmyCooper. I long for your outrage toward politicians who use racist language and hide behind executive privilege and legislation to ensure black, brown and red people stay in their “place.”
I long for your #prolife outrage for people who can’t eat, jog, walk, watch birds, or breathe without fear of death. I long for you to check your own #whiteprivilege and use it to “do good.” I long for you to stand up and act to end this nightmare. I long for you to fight for equity and justice.
Lip service is as awful as silence.
When you choose silence, you choose the side of the oppressor. And when you choose the side of the oppressor, you are not choosing to follow God. This, the Bible IS actually clear about. Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life and have it in abundance.”
Do me a favor. Read a book like “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” or reference the book list on my earlier Facebook post from my friend, Rev. April Casperson.
How long, oh Lord, how long???
Jasmine Rose Smothers 
You had to write..you did not have to write so powerfully. We love you.
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