Our Readers Write About Our Days of Rage Posts

Editor’s Note: In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, we began a new blog series titled Days of Rage, Hope and Action to give voice to our African American friends, colleagues and allies. The powerful series was kicked off by our good friend and former legal colleague Jess Womack. The following letter is from a reader. It is raw and excruciatingly honest, we offer her thoughts to you and thank her for granting us permission to publish it.

For our white readers, the resources mentioned in this article for making sense of the current crisis and taking action to assist are highly recommended:

The Struggle to Make Heads or Tails of the Current Crisis

by Joyce Kirby Longtin

Thank you so much for offering your platform as a way for folks to voice their thoughts on recent events in our global community.

I’ve been struggling to make heads or tails of things and keep in front of me the fact that none of these issues are about me personally, but answering the deafening call from my conscience that I HAVE to be an agent for change.

I’m an average, middle class white woman who grew up during the 1970s-1990s in the South. I was taught at home by white parents predating de-segregation that I should be afraid of black men (no real reason, just be afraid).

While many of my closest friends at school were black, we never visited one another’s homes for play dates or sleepovers and it was not questioned. College was much the same.

When I married, I left the South to live in Southern California where life was definitely different. Through the eyes and young friendships of my children I began to learn about more cultures of the world, exploring friendships with people of color of my own, and living a completely different reality of inclusiveness on levels my family back home still cannot comprehend.

For the past six years I’ve lived within view of the Minneapolis skyline and find that I am all at once devastated, hopeful, enraged, and lost.

There is so much to be done, but what can I do? I’m shaken to my core in evaluating the lessons I’ve always endeavored to teach my children to ensure that they will not be tolerant of systemic and multifaceted inequalities in society or be a party to their perpetuation.

I’m staggered with overwhelm and sadness to realize that, while I’d been active and vocal about LGBTQ and Women’s rights, I’d neglected to speak directly to the issue of race. Reading this post and others like it is helping me to find my footing, raise my voice, and improve my eyesight so I can finally see my path for the changes I can personally make to be more inclusive.