Willing To Be A Part Of The Solution On Racism In America - Charlie Widmer
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.”
Platform of Hope submitted by: Charlie Widmer
Today was supposed to be another installment of my music series #SongsFromHome, but it just didn’t feel right to put something up like “Check out this new song” when the world, and I as well, are hurting like this.
As a mixed-race person, being half Puerto Rican and Swiss, my experience with race has been relatively all over the map. I’ve grown up always being identified as a white person because of my looks but never really feeling like it. I could fill this post with all different kinds of stories dealing with race, but I will share two that really shape how I think.
When I was still a kid, I remember a family member of mine telling me, “You have no idea how lucky you are.” I asked, “What are you talking about?” They replied, “That they will never know you don’t belong. They will never think you aren’t one of them.”
Another is how after learning about the KKK at school, I started to develop a fear that, just like the movie we’d seen, men dressed in hoods would come to my house for my family. The catch was that they wouldn’t believe I was part of my family because of the way I looked and wouldn’t kill or hurt me but would leave me behind since I was “alright”.
Here’s the thing: racism and the rules of how America actually functions have always been painfully real for all people of color. Just like Will Smith said, they’re just filming it now. If we want to see change really take place, it’s going to take serious sacrifices on all our ends to make a difference. Not just today, not just next week, but years of hard work to fix this broken system and to educate the ignorant.
My heart breaks for the family of George Floyd and even more for the communities that feel oppressed, both in Minneapolis and the rest of America. I think like everyone else I am tired of these terribly painful stories that happen week after week. The time for change is now and I don’t know about you, but I want to be a part of that change.