Justice for Ahmaud

*** My apologies, dear readers, if you have seen this already and are getting it in your inbox or feed. I did a few longer Instagram posts and am trying to get them all into my blog feed for safekeeping. ***

 My heart is heavy, heavy, heavy.

How is it that the killers of Ahmaud Arbery, a young man out for a jog near his house in Georgia, still have not been arrested two and a half months after the murder? •

The murder, an outright lynching, is bad enough, but what is the thought process of the authorities? In not making any arrests, not prosecuting, they are revealing which kind of life matters to them, and what they think they can get away with, what they have always been able to get away with.

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I hurt for Ahmaud Arbery’s mother. It is too much. My own son leaves for a jog every day.

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When we talk about white privilege, we talk about the things we get to take for granted that other races aren’t assured of.

But not being in danger of being shot while jogging in broad daylight is a poor, base kind of privilege. It’s just a human right. Like clean water, or food. The right to take up space. The right to be unafraid, to be happy, to move. If some humans have this and others don’t, we are broken, fissured, lost.

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We are so lost. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.

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Again and again, no matter for how long, we as white people need to repent of the history of white supremacy in the world. We need to learn to hate it, even in its most subtle forms. We need to hate the parts of history where it shows up. It is a cancer.

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It takes a lot of work and clumsiness and resilience. Learning not to be defensive. I’m still deep in it myself, and sometimes I am the worst. Defensive and fragile and angry that the world is not the easy place I was privileged to think it is. But this is life or death. Any amount of discomfort is worth it, is nothing compared to the safety and dignity of Black people.

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I am so so sorry.

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Ahmaud’s killers need to be brought to justice. How dare they think they can kill a Black man and nothing will happen? They dare if we let them.

There is a petition for authorities to take notice at runwithmaud.com. Let’s flood it. •

Leafy and Kenya and I will be joining in a run of solidarity on Saturday, which is Friday evening in the US. Maybe you would like to join too?

#justiceforahmaud #runwithmaud