I want to start by stating; I am a cisgender, middle-class, white, privileged male. I grew up with more opportunities and advantages than most. I have certainly worked hard for what I have gotten in life, but I am not naive to think I am where I am today only because of me and my hard work. I have been given opportunities, chances, money, and support every step of the way.
I see a police officer and I feel safe. I have no idea what it is like to feel any other way. I have no idea what it is like to be discriminated against, looked at differently, to be called names, not given opportunities, to be beaten, or to have my neck kneeled on simply because of the color of my skin.
I wake up in the morning and take my dog for a walk, and never have I felt unsafe. I walk into a store to make a purchase and am never questioned on whether or not my money is real. I could go to a store every day for the rest of my life to buy a pack of cigarettes and never be questioned about that.
If my experiences in life have taught me anything it is that you don’t know what you don’t know. If you have never experienced something yourself, you can’t understand what that person is going through or has gone through.
So, I am not going to sit here and say that I understand what black people are feeling or going through right now. I will not offer my opinion on what I think should or shouldn’t happen. I will not offer my unsolicited advice on a subject I have not lived, breathed and experienced. I will not pretend to understand what it is like to not be a cisgender, middle-class, white, privileged male.
What I will do is listen. What I will do is educate myself. What I will do is look at myself and my own biases to uncover what I can do to become a better person.
What I will not do is stand idly by while others make ignorant comments.
I, along with many of you, will never understand what it is like to not be white. I can only hope that one day, regardless of what race a child may be, they too can live in a world that I live in every day.
I am privileged. I am white. But what I will not be is a bystander.

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