Beauty Affirmed. Work to be Done

Beauty Affirmed. Work to be Done

Then along comes a friend, sharing wine and food,

Speaking the honest words, asking the questions,

Bringing closure to a day of walking and remembering

Thunder and tears.

The night winds itself down as the sky turns shades.

A voice from the stairway that means only goodness,

From the heart of a youth, who does not understand the world, even though she pretends to.

“I don’t understand why there is racism when black people, I mean people of color, are so beautiful.”

Cringing and speechless to layers of ignorance about a deeply racist society.

A mom stands wanting to vacuum up the words that have already spilled out. 

Agreed. Black people are beautiful and our world does not say it, nor celebrate it enough.

If only beauty could erase centuries of ugly injustice.

If only a white mom knew how to explain it to her white girl.

1619. Colonization. Slavery. Worse.

For centuries.

Systematic decisions we regularly make and historically repeat,

Benefitting those who already hold the power.

White privilege. White ignorance. White fragility.

White everything that led us to need a day to walk and remember.

I fumbled in the darkness, lacking words to respond to the all-kinds-of-wrong that came spilling out of a well-meaning mouth.

I woke up in the wee hours wondering how to shut that down without shutting her down.

How to reflect so as not to repeat?

How to agree about the beauty without simplifying the struggle?

I am sorry this was said. I am sorry about the state of our society.

I want to affirm the beauty while interrupting the racism that swallows it whole.

I want to acknowledge that in my own life, in my own home, there is work to be done.

Forgive us beautiful friends. There is work to be done. We will never be done.