I don’t understand racism.  I just don’t.  It is absurd to me that people are judged by the color of their skin.  Unfortunately, racism continues to exist and is the constant canvas upon which America is painted.  I don’t understand how hate has become America’s industrialized injustice.  It is an institutional divide that we still have been unable to overcome for centuries.

One of my favorite quotes is from Martin Luther King Jr.:

This seems so simple to me.  It just takes so much anger, devotion to destruction, negativity, and energy to hate people because of the color of their skin.  So exhausting.  I would much rather use my energy, positivity, devotion to respect all people, and happiness to build a bridge for America to cross to put a stop to hate, violence, profiling, and fear.

As I’ve thought more about recent events that have been happening across the country that have magnified racism to a level that we all know exists, but have had the luxury as white people to ignore or stay silent, I’ve thought of a book I often read to Levi.  It is called How the CRAYONS saved the RAINBOW written by Monica Sweeney and illustrated by Feronia Parker Thomas.  You can find it here.  It is about the sun and the clouds being best friends and how they loved to make rainbows together.  Then one day they got into a big fight and weren’t friends anymore.  The world lost all of it’s beautiful colors and there were no more rainbows.  Luckily, in one little town in a school desk was a box of crayons that still had their colors.  They were so sad that all they could see was black and white.  They went in search of the colors and decided they could do something.  They started coloring rainbows all over town, but nothing changed.  So, they worked together and colored a huge and bright rainbow so the entire world could see it.  The sun and the clouds slowly took notice of the beautiful rainbow and realized how much they missed being friends and making the world a colorful place.  So, they apologized to each other and worked together and rainbows started to reappear and make the world wonderful once again.

You might be thinking, what does this children’s book have to do with racism?  It has everything to do with racism.  When the world is devoid of the uniqueness and beauty of all colors and people, it is bleak and bitter.  When we get tired of living this way, we will choose to become the colorful crayons, make a difference and make the world bright.  Honestly, I am tired of racism.  We are better than this.  Our nation has progressed and evolved in so many ones, but continues to allow the stain of racism to define us.  We must tip the scale towards racial and social justice.  We must speak up as individuals, families, communities and as a country.    We must not limit ourselves and live in ignorance.  We grow and heal by walking with others in their journey.  We have to love one another as humans.  This is what God has called us to do.  After all, it takes all the colors in the crayon box to make beautiful rainbows.