On Charlottesville

To the person who requested I “just get back to the outfit posts” following my tweets about Charlottesville:

Do you genuinely believe that some people matter more than others?

I am a white girl. I am from an upper-middle class family. I graduated from a prestigious college. I have lived a life full of privilege. The fact that I am writing this very post shows that I am one of the 47% of humans on the planet with internet access.

I was raised Catholic. I was taught that Jesus loves us all and everyone is equal in His eyes. In school, and honestly even into my college classes, race relations were mentioned as a thing of the past: It all happened decades ago, and now there are kids of all colors in our classrooms, so everything is different!

I naively believed that we were past the times of racial issues and discrimination until Michael Brown was shot and killed right before my junior year at Purdue University. This is when I first noticed the divide between the white, upper-middle class area of Saint Louis County where I was raised and those who were different. I am embarrassed to say that immediately following the incident, I sided with those whose voices I trusted from my community. My eyes slowly started to open as evidence poured in and I began to seek out information from sources other than my Facebook news feed and local news channel.

When I moved to Chicago following my college graduation, let’s just say this process of eyes opening went into overdrive.

As a white girl in America with an adopted Latina sister, I need to help others understand that this is not “getting political.” This is not a partisan issue. This is a human rights issue.

I am not asking you to debate on raising minimum wage or lowering taxes. I am asking you one simple question: Do you genuinely believe that some people matter than others?

If yes, I will pray for you.

Otherwise, you need to do something.

I get that you may not know what to do. When I realized how real racism is in this country (and even in my hometown) I was in the same boat. How do I as a 20-something white girl help those who are discriminated against without coming off as condescending or ignorant? I don’t always get it right. I’m human, and I make mistakes. I don’t have any idea of how life is for minorities, but I try my best to learn from my past missteps and inaction, ask questions, and most importantly to speak out when I see something wrong.

And so, to the the person who told me to “just get back to the outfit posts,” I will leave you with this:

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I will do my best to use my privilege and my platform to help others in any way I can. Some days that is sharing fashion posts for women to embrace their true selves and feel comfortable in their bodies, and some days it is speaking out against hatred in the country that I love. Today, it’s both; here is your highly requested outfit post.