A Statement
History has to speak to injustice. So this is what I have to say, as a white historian, about what happened to George Floyd, what is happening in Minneapolis, and what happened in Central Park, and all the other litany of tragedies that have come before.
Listen to black voices. Iβm tired and sick to my soul of white people refusing to hear the voices of racialized people in Canada and the United States try to tell us what time of day it is.
If we are of good faith, we must stand in alliance, and raise those voices up where we can so others can hear even when they cover their ears. To be silent is to be complicit - and history must always condemn that.
Listen. And then do something about it.
βAnd I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? β¦ It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.β - Martin Luther King, Jr.
