#blacklivesmatter

I'm still speechless.

I don't know what to say.

What I want to say shouldn't be on this platform because I want to rail at the injustice of life and discuss white privilege. I want write all the things in support of protests - and yes, even rioting.

This doesn't mean I agree with the looting and burning of businesses. I don't.

After all, once someone has protested peacefully for so long that eventually, they are going to give up the peacefulness and force you to listen. Wouldn't you?

But that isn't what my blogs are about. I write about struggles with hearing loss (D/HoH), struggling through writing and editing, and post my stories that have aspects of both deafness and adoption.

Couldn't I post about #blacklivesmatter and what I can do to teach my son to respect a POC, and eradicating racism within my own thoughts? Teaching my son that every color is special and human, but not to be "colorblind"? After all, I don't want him to be say "hearing is the only way to be."

And, he has two cousins who are black.

He loves his cousins - and as a kid, no, he doesn't "see" their color. He's noted that they are a different color, but it doesn't stop him from playing with them and enjoying being their cousin.

There is a movie, Rigoletto, that touches on the topics of being different. There are a couple of good quotes:

"Sometimes it takes hard times to make us gentle and strong." - Ari Ribaldi

and

"Being different doesn't make you bad, does it?" - Bonnie

Different doesn't make you bad. We're all different from each other, none of us are the exact same. Wouldn't you say, then, that different is normal?

But, this isn't what the blog is about.

I'm still speechless over the audacity that people have to say that "white privilege" is not a thing, that blacks are treated equally. No, they aren't.

My sister worries about her boys. The oldest doesn't understand that he can't go up to random people and give them hugs (he is autistic) and the youngest is super mischievous; so she worries that he is going to upset a white person. But every day, she has prayed that she never has to see her sons fear running, going to the store, or even talking to an authority figure.

And I worry for her and the boys. I worry that one day they aren't going to come home and she will be dealing with her boys being taken from her.

I pray that nothing happens to the boys. I know that having the white privilege has helped me throughout my life. I know that I have never experienced what blacks have in America - even being Deaf - and that neither group is treated equally.

Hopefully, eventually, they will have equality and racism will be eradicated. But it will start at home.

#ktjamesauthor #ktjames #deafness #blacklivesmatter #blm

If you are looking for a good IG account to follow, The Conscious Kid, Here We Read and a good short videos discussing topics is Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.