When Rashid Tlaib was first elected to Congress, I had the privilege of spending time with her. Rashida was, and continues to be, beloved and respected by those who know her in Detroit and neighboring Dearborn.
At that time, Rashida told me the solution to the Israel-Palestine issue is a single state. “It has to be one state. Separate but equal does not work,” she said.
Students of history know her words are true.
Yet, here we are, replaying history in slow motion, driven by hate and ignorance.
I had a man sincerely ask me last week what I thought was the pathway to get out of the mess: The killing of at least 34,000 civilians, at least 97 journalists, and hundreds of aid workers. The war crimes. The ~1,200 Israelis killed. The uproar on college campuses. The police oppression.
I write to you today, to tell you what I told him: Just stop.
Just stop.
That is the first step.
A cease fire. A laying down of weapons.
Then, a stfu and listen.
This is true for all harm—including in our own back yard.
We need a “just stop” here in the U.S.A., too. Often, a certain class of people will get frustrated with black and brown folks, wanting them to “get over” the past–except the past is very much the present. Unarmed Black people are still murdered by law enforcement. Native children are still removed from their families and placed with white families. Latin American migrant children are still working in fields, in meat processing plants, in dangerous conditions–and Louisiana even passed a law just two weeks ago, denying those children a break from work to eat.
“Can’t we leave race out of it?” white folks often ask me, cringing, as if these facts were hitting them directly. Except, we cannot, because the lines of what is happening are drawn, separating and targeting a very specific color, class, and history of people.
You cannot ask someone to “get over” violence while they are being shot at, just as you don’t ask someone to “get over” having cancer while they are still suffering from it.
The violence today is the same. No one will get over anything while they are being actively shot at. While their children are being actively targeted and killed, or removed from their families, or forced into slave labor.
Palestine is far away, but it is U.S. dollars paying for the carnage.
Which is why a “just stop” is so important here at home. For the children there, and for the children here—and for all of our future.
Just stop.
It’s uncomfortable, because the food on your plate, the police in your city, your alma mater, members of your own family, your tax dollars, all might be a part of this.
Which is why, not only must we just stop, we must then shut up and listen.
And, yes, that is uncomfortable.
If you want to learn more, I recommend my new, short, kindle or pocket paperback book, Truth & Reconciliation in Practice: Look to Maine for an example of a reckoning that can bring meaningful change.
Ahiy’é. Aché.
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