Black Lives Matter (OH, and happy 4/20)

Today, in what is a very rare thing, a white cop was found guilty of killing an unarmed black man. I imagine the streets of Minneapolis will be singing tonight. Although this battle was won, the war still rages. I had to come to terms with my own racism. I am white. I grew up in a tiny farming town in the Midwest. My entire public-school experience did not include any people of color. We were all white. However, this wasn't an issue with my group of friends. We never even considered racism. I'm guessing it's because we were so far removed from minority struggles, it's something we just didn't think about. Even when we were older, in high school it was not an issue. Most of my friends and I were involved in many extracurricular activities that took us to other schools for competitions, schools that had diverse students. We didn't see black/brown/white students, we saw them as our peers and competitors. As I grew into my adult years and began to learn about the world (well as best as I could do in the middle of the country). I honestly believed that I was not a racist. Not that I've had hate in my heart but, I always treated black/brown/Asian/etc. people like I would want to be treated. Then in my late 20's I moved from my small town to a bigger town, a college town. This is the time that I was really opened. Even though I was in the same state, moving to this college town was a world away from where I grew up. I had never had Thai food before, I never had Indian food before, I saw concerts, live music, went on vacations and saw things I thought I would never see. During my time in this town, I had such a diverse set of friends, Black, Latinx, Korean, LGBTQ, hippies, academics. I also visited a Muslim mosque and a Buddhist Temple. Although I should note I'm not at all religious however, the experience was magnificent and beautiful. Though, the biggest thing I received was the curiosity and critical thinking of current events and politics. I am now a political junkie and have since turned my roommate into a political junkie. We watch about 6 hours of news a day (on a weekday) more on the weekends. Now that I’m (so sorry to use this term) woke, I know there’s so much more to racism than just spewing racists hateful comments. I learned about systemic racism After about 14 years I moved back to my small town to be close to my aging parents. This town is again a world away from the college town I lived in. I don't find a lot of like-minded people here. So back to my first statement about racism. When I came back to town I really started diving into political news and I started seeing how many unarmed black men were being killed by police officers. For me, it sort of started with Michael Brown. I was not there; I do not know what happened. I do not know why the police officer felt he was in danger. Again, I put in in the back of my mind, not that I'm not sympathetic I was very sad about it, I was just far removed from it. It didn't affect me. But then came Laquan McDonald. Yes, he was on a dangerous drug, yes, he had a large knife. I'm thinking to myself, if I were in that situation, would I shoot, would I feel threated? I think I would, however once he was down, he was down. Then the Chicago Police put 16...yes 16 additional bullets in his body. THAT IS EXCESSIVE. The event that finally pulled me out of my white privileged world, Philando Castile. Thank goodness his girlfriend had the thought to live stream that crime. The police officer asked him for his ID. When he reached back to get his wallet, the police officer shot him and he died right there in the car, being lived stream. And I had the biggest epiphany. I grew up in a white town, I went to white public schools, I learned white history. I was, for lack of a better term, indoctrinated into white history. I never learned about black history. Hell, I didn't even know about Juneteenth until I was in my late 20s. Now that my head is turned around and I have a better view of systemic racism, I SEE IT EVERYWHERE! I see it and it makes me ill. It is vile. Cop pulls over a young lady with a headlight out, he would probably try and help the lady with her headlight. Cop pulls over a black man with a headlight out, he's out of the car, on his knees with guns drawn on him. For all you dumbass rednecks, THAT is white privilege. Peace!