The Black Lives Matter movement has shaken up cultures around the world over the past weeks, sparking global demonstrations, protests, discussion, and intense introspection.
For me, the conversation around race always leads to thoughts on opportunity.
In North America, our cultures are driven by the American dream. An idea that we are not fixed to a future. That if we work hard and stay focused on our goals, we can achieve the life we want, with every option for upward mobility, financial independence, real freedom. This was the idea around which I was raised, and I have been blessed enough to feel the advantages of a very charmed life. I was born in a wealthy, white community, in a wealthy country, to parents who were smart, strategic, and industrious. I was afforded opportunities to succeed that put me ahead in the game. Blonde haired and blue eyed, limited from that wold view, I did not know this was a fixed race.
Make no mistake, I worked very hard for each opportunity. I sacrificed. I was relentless. I faced tough lessons and missteps. I was knocked down and I have had true heartbreak in my life. There are also peers of mine who wasted their opportunities while others less fortunate rose from unlikely, even impossible circumstances to astounding results. Ultimately a chance is only worth what you make of it.
Set aside the nuances and extremes though, and opportunity has been a defining factor in my privilege, my success, and the success of so many others in the white community. For centuries, we have had the option to pursue the life of our dreams freely, most often with every liberty and at times at the expense of the black community. In direct opposition, people of colour have long been oppressed by systemic racism, discrimination and biases - a massive imbalance that has fueled not only limited opportunity for the black community, but has required them to prove themselves that much more on the chase.
I know better than most what happens to a person who is well set up, valued, believed in. How much someone can achieve when they feel safe, when they are encouraged to thrive, when they have their effort and work rewarded. How fully they can come into their own when they are offered the benefit of the doubt, when their growth and learning is met with grace. How profound respect can be. I know what a life of opportunity is. And I ask myself now what could have been, what still could be, if we supported and celebrated the black community the way we have supported and celebrated the white. What amazing things people of color could do and contribute truly given the opportunity. How much brighter and bolder our world would be, how much more exciting, powerful, and joy filled the future could look through equality and social justice.
I was not intentionally blind. These were unconscious inclinations. I know exactly how lucky I am. Here is the stark truth: I did not question the racial landscape as I did not believe it had anything to do with me. Race and the history of the black community are topics my family and I are discussing, and learning about for the first time. I know I do not want to say the wrong thing, to do the wrong thing, but I will not move forward the way I lived before, complicit in my ignorance and silence. It is time for all of us to take responsibility for the way we have let this injustice stand and demand more of ourselves and our communities.
This is a real opportunity.
Black lives matter.