12 Days of Christmas Gifts

"Let there be Peace on Earth and Let it Begin With Me..."

A lot has been written/said about the emotional Ferguson Decision.  Every once in a while one comes across an article you'd like to share. The following is one such article. Instead of trying to condense/summarize the article, I've decided to share each of the article's 12 suggestions on each of the next 12 days. 

Why Christmas is supposed to be all about peace, right? We can't just think about peace, we need to act. Each suggestion is a gift, a gift to ourselves and to our society.

You might question what can an individual do. Well, even living in the back of the End of Rainbow Valley in the middle of nowhere, I now have some direction. The article's entitled:
 "12 Things White People Can Actually Do After the Ferguson Decision." 

We begin with the powerful words of Joseph Osmundson and David J. Leonard in the HuffPost Black Voices's article. Read on and please do share.

"In the wake of the decision in Ferguson, and the killing of Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio and Akai Gurley in New York, righteous anger is boiling over on the streets, on social media and within our everyday lives. So many of us feel so powerless, unable to affect substantive change, unable to do anything other than hurt. Powerless does not mean there isn't work to be done. It is silence, inactivity, complacency and disconnect that are the enemies of justice, not rage.

Sign reads- Blessed are the Peacemakers.

White people of good conscious, too, want to act in solidarity in the fight for racial justice, but may feel cut off from the communities or resources necessary to do so. The feelings of disconnect from these movements, from the rage, from tears and from injustice warrant interrogation. So does the cycle of injustice, followed by shock, silence, articles on "we can do," and a return to our everyday lives.

This cannot simply be about performing change and solidarity; it cannot be about doing without accountability and sacrifice.

We were struck by a recent piece that suggested 12 things white people can do in the wake of the Ferguson; all but one of the suggestions involved only thinking, reading, contemplating, reframing. While these personal acts are absolutely necessary, they are insufficient. They are not enough, and especially not today. They fall short because they don't facilitate change, because they don't hold whiteness accountable, and because they aren't sufficiently tied into movements of racial justice. And so, we would like to offer a list of 12 actual things white people can do to act today, tomorrow, next week, next year." 

TBC ( to be continued)  for the next 12 days.  STAY TUNED.