My heart is full.

As the year has drawn to a close, I’ve been distracted by school finishing oddly, manically finishing up work, grieving the people who are leaving, grieving opportunities lost, but seeing what my friends are going through back home is compounding that grief and I don’t want to be silent anymore because I am afraid of how I’ll be perceived.

I have heard it all before.
I’ve even said some of it before.

“It’s not that bad.”

“Racism exists everywhere.”

“But we’ve made so much progress.”

“All lives matter.”

“I’ve been discriminated against too.”

Or we’re fearful of offending. Saying things wrong. Waiting until we get the “full” story before we speak out, if we do at all.

But what “full story” could possibly justify kneeling on a man’s neck until he dies? Chasing someone down and murdering them because they seem “suspicious?” Calling the cops when you are in the wrong, but you know the police will be on your side if you’re hysterical enough, if you twist the narrative enough?

We sneer at the term “white privilege” because it stings our conscience; it’s prickles our sensibilities. We want to point at our own hardships and struggles, the times we’ve experienced a bit of racism.

But we don’t know. The world is not systemically against us for something we cannot help, the color of our skin, the country of our origin. Even as a foreigner living in another country – sure, I have experienced some difficulties, some inequality, some skewed standards, especially during the COVID lockdown, but look up the Rohingya people and see how differently racism works out, how mistreatment varies based on skin color and country of origin.

Silence is not an option anymore. It never should have been an option to begin with. We are not progressing. We are letting things fester. And, as one friend aptly quoted, “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10).

Church, do not be silent. Do not let it be said of us, as God spoke of the nation Israel, “They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice. And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord God“ (Ezekiel 22:29-31).

We must stand in the gap; we must speak out; we must seek justice.

Because they can’t breathe,

And our silence is thickening the air.