The main storylines around Sha‘Carri Richardson are unfortunate. I’m sad for her, and hope for her restoration. But while we advocate for her, I suggest we do so without elevating this to an attack on the black community. It’s not.
We should have had December off. We should have taken the time to rest, to balance out the grind of the year with some calm and reflection. We should have prioritized the care and endurance of our people. This year especially.
This is the legacy of old men: callous selfishness buffeted by deep insecurity as they watch the dusk of their days approach. The pursuit of profit and power above all else and at the price of their own humanity.
People love a good heart-warming yarn, and I see the appeal. Assessing humanity by its more common tendencies is uncomfortable and self-implicating. But if we can’t call out the problem we can’t fix it. We can’t raise our children with as much focus on grace and empathy as we put on competition and advancement.
While it is meant to protect people, I cannot remember the last time I saw the law used to pull down power on behalf of the powerless. I am convinced more and more that it is not meant for that.
How can we get excited about someone only partially addresses our needs? How much longer must we compromise? I would suggest that those are questions not from a place of rightness, but from fear. And we need to relax.
Perhaps the most difficult part of this week, on a personal level, was being “back at the office.” “Distracted” isn’t quite the word. It was more a partitioning of my psyche into two equally necessary, asymmetrically important, and overlapping halves.
This will be a rough draft, stream of consciousness and entirely unedited or proof-read. I…