As we face these trying times, they are uncomfortable. They are uncomfortable because, as a white man, you wonder what your role is in this adventure or misadventure as it were. Have you missed opportunities to change the world? Or missed opportunities to change your little segment of the world? Are you complicit in this simply because you have not done everything to eradicate this monstrosity from the world? These questions run through your mind and you are uncomfortable, because for the first time in your life, it is very obvious what other ethnic groups are experiencing and it is so completely different from your experience. And it scares you.

So the question that remains is, not your guilt at complicity but what can you do moving forward? Is protesting enough? Is standing beside and alongside the oppressed groups enough? Right now, we are talking about Black Lives, of course they matter. We are focused on them because of the atrocities that have happened recently. These are not new, they happened for years and years. We exile a professional athlete for his protests to bring these crimes to the world’s attention. Now, we are backpedaling on our excoriation of his peaceful protest.

To answer my question, standing alongside the protest is good for now but it cannot end there. We have to not only recognize the issue but actively work to eradicate it. We have to be the catalyst of change. We cannot let the momentum die because it is not longer the hot issue weeks from now. We have to actively commit to making these changes and enforcing these changes in our own corner of the world. And let everyone know that judging and treating someone differently based on a prejudice is not acceptable regardless of where that judgment comes.

Be not only a proponent of change but a catalyst of change. Even if it is only in your corner of the world. If we each change our corner of the world, the world will change one corner at a time.