Request for privilege used

Before I begin, it is my hope that you read the following with an open mind, as I try to appeal to your good hearts and souls.

Over the last several years I have alienated people who I have had relationships with on several levels (friendships, past romantic relationships that now are friends, etc) over the matter of race.  It has cost me support as I have chased my dreams, since a lot of the posts I have shared on this platform has caused discomfort and disgust, anger and rage.  However I feel that talking about what is going on in the country is important, because it affects me and my children.  Many of you are parents; if your kids were threatened in any way, you would do anything to make sure they were as safe as they can be.

I am no different from many of you, and I only wish that we can all co-exist in this space in history.

But I have to address my Caucasian associates and friends, including all of those who have agreed with my view that things are just not right.

It is exhausting to try to explain to you that we live in two different worlds, where the privileges promised to all isn’t that way in real life.  

Every day I read about how people like me, people who live different lifestyles that are not acceptable to you, people accused of horrible things simply because they worship a different God than you do, or ultimately because they are not Caucasian they are view as less than human.  

I am aware that the media slants things to their audience; there hasn’t been GREAT journalism in decades, where the simple truth is told to inform people about the world around them.  I am also aware that this platform has been abused to shape the mindsets of everyone...including voters, obviously.  

But what is obvious is this....hate has been the blood that has coursed through this country’s veins since its inception.  It has, in my nearly 48 years, had me walk on eggshells, trying to fit into a world that obviously doesn’t want folks like me around (to a point, anyway).  It has broken my heart, as I see people that I thought were friends run away because I have a desire to be treated like they are, judged based on my actions, not because of better resistance to the sun.  It also tears me up when folks I have know who are gay, folks that I’ve know that are Muslim, folks that don’t fit into the bright, light and white America that obviously they are threatened that will be taken away because people don’t want to go back to separate bathrooms, hangings, harassment, and basically treated like dogs.

I have personally listened to the stories of folks of all backgrounds, offering my ear and friendship, not giving a damn that you didn’t look like me.  Despite some of the lessons of my parents, children of the segregated south, I simply refused to accept that someone was lesser than I was....or I was lesser than them.  

It is why I get so irritated with my Caucasian friends at times.  While a lot of them mean well, they at times simply don’t get what folks who aren’t  like them go through.  All I ever hear a lot of the time are excuses, not change.  There are a few warriors out there (they know their names, so I won’t go there) who know things are messed up, and are doing what they can for change. 

We as human beings are so afraid of things or people different from them, and we react with hatred and rage.  Perhaps I am weird, but that is bullshit.  Inquire, ask, learn about folks different than yourselves.  Stop listening to the outside noise and actually just say, “I don’t get you...can you please explain why you are, well, you?”  I am not saying that we will all hold hands and sing “We Are The World.”  Not blind to the fact that will ever happen; we are too flawed.  Hell, I know I am on the hell express for my hangups.   

I guess, even if I am simply writing this out as self therapy, that to those who only see me as Gregory F Flagler, author, husband, father and friend, not really giving a damn that I am of African descent and sexy (had to toss ONE joke in there) try, truly, to take yourself out of your much safer position and look at wha it’s obvious.  There are no crisis actors here.  Kids are still dead.  Black people are still dead, even if they are guilty of shit.  Gay folks are being discriminated against (pretty confident that a member of the LGBQT community can shoot a gun in the armed forces).  All these things that are happening to everyone BUT YOU are real, and it sucks.

Y’all wouldn’t tolerate it.

Why should we?

A friend of mine said “not all heroes wear capes.”

This isn’t about being a hero.  This is just a desire for understanding, acceptance (and hell, even if you can’t, stay in your yard) and allowing folks who obey the rules of society to simply live.

Fear excluded.