Facing and Speaking Your Truth
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
(James Baldwin)
DJN co-president Ndure Cain has been out in Highland Park ready to talk but no one will open the door- and we know there’s a lot people in the community would like to say to us…
so we say to you- let’s face the truth and change together.
We get a lot of emails- a lot of hate mail, a lot of fear mail from these neighborhoods.
Ibram X. Kendi teaches that “White privileges are the relative advantages racism affords to people identified as white, whether white people recognize them or deny them. To be white is to be afforded one's individuality. Afforded the presumption of innocence. Afforded the assumption of intelligence. Afforded empathy when crying or raging. Afforded disproportionate amounts of policy-making power. Afforded opportunity from a white network. Afforded wealth-building homes and resource-rich schools. Afforded the ability to vote quickly and easily.”
But from what we see walking through wealthy, predominantly white Highland park, sometime white privilege is that your biggest problem of the day is that your gardener put too much mulch on the lawn… whereas 15 minutes away in South Dallas, the folks in that neighborhood have problems like not enough food, not guaranteed safety, warmth, education.
We get it, you are afraid to talk to us- afraid of us, even.
We are here to talk about our differences but who is willing to have this conversation?
Many of you can hide behind an email, but will not speak to us when we literally come to your door or up to you on the street or at the park.
We actually do want to talk to you- we actually do think you can be part of the solution- or we would not be wasting our valuable time.
It’s easy to hide behind hate emails- it’s much harder to speak your truth face to face.
Let’s talk!
