re: "He is a Good Boy"- Levi Petitt's parents

quote:

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"Look, I know it is easier just to be done with these students. Bashing them is incredibly popular and dismissing them from the island of humanity appears to be all the rage. Unfortunately, I am called to the two most idealistic professions—teaching and preaching and I believe in the power of conversion. I believe in the power of Grace. I believe in a God of Second Chances. I believe in a God who is a master teacher.

I know. How silly of me."

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^ this is what should be done

i feel like too many young African Americans and others grew up hearing their parents and grandparents tell stories about Selma and sit-ins and other instances where they had peaceful protests so that they could be included in the conversation and so that the discussion of civil rights could start.

the problem is they hear their parents' and grandparents' stories and want so badly to also be a tool of change and social justice so they immediately jump to protest at these types of events.

But they lose sight of the fact that the reason they're parents protested was so they would even be allowed to have the dialogue about rights and justice in the first place.

I feel like by automatically jumping to protest they're missing out the opportunity to dialogue with the Levi Petitt's of the world in order to try to bring about true change.

Young people want so badly to say "i marched at OU after that terrible video came out" that they're not allowing themselves the chance to say "I was part of the group that sat down with those SAEs to help them understand how they hurt others with their cruel words."

Its cooler to protest and be part of the masses and the groupthink yelling for these SAEs heads when it was probably the same type of groupthink that got a bus chanting these terrible things in the first place.