Instead Of Outrage Take Action To Rescue Our Children

And absolutely yes, we need to sound the alarm and take up arms in the face of institutional racism and violence. But in the mean time, our children need our direct action more than our outrage.

[Commentary] 

Action Speaks Louder Than Words
 
I’m holding the pain and promise of Black children in my heart today – and also our collective responsibility for them.  
 
This is a call for us to get off our FB soapboxes and get out into the world for more collective action.  
 
It’s
no coincidence that we are commemorating the one-year anniversary of
Trayvon Martin’s murder –without a conviction– at the same time as
we
are up in arms about The Onion’s malicious tweet about the brilliant,
beautiful Quvenzhané Wallis. On the night of her great day, The Onion insulted the nine-year old Oscar-nominee as the C-word with the tweet: ‘Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a c–t, right?’


The real question for all of us,
Black folks in particular, is what are we doing to actively love and
protect our children when the wider world won’t?  Armchair
activism can
only get our children so far.   

 
We are rightfully outraged
about Trayvon and about Quvenzhané but unless we take that energy beyond
the page and actively embrace the overwhelming numbers of Black
children in prisons, foster care, on violent streets, in violent schools
and in violent homes – where they are cursed, killed, and condemned on a
daily basis; too often by folks who look like them
– then we are
wasting our tim
e, our tweets and their precious breath.   
 
If you like this, don’t offer a thumbs up.   
 
Go
volunteer at one of these organizations below to directly reach a
child–other than your own.  Report domestic violence and child abuse
when you see it. 

 
Adopt, foster, mentor or tutor a child. Join
policy change, legal advocacy or grassroots organizing efforts on behalf
of Black children.   

 
Support and volunteer with parental
skills and job training programs.  Give 10% of your earnings to a
scholarship fund or an afterschool program. Hire a Black teenager where
you work.   

 
Teach a child other than your own how to: read,
dance, debate, meditate, manage money, make films in their own image,
resolve conflict peacefully, find family, negotiate, write poems,
practice a martial art, write code, get into college, analyze and
advocate for policy change, make music, invent, invest, learn self-love
and self-discipline.   

 
Heal.  Organize their peers, families
and communities–engage elected officials.  Teach them to grow a garden,
to grow their own business and to expand their vision and
possibilities. 

 
There are always going to be haters.  And
absolutely yes, we need to sound the alarm and take up arms in the face
of institutional racism and violence.  But in the mean time, our
children need our direct action more than our outrage. 

 
Here are some of the organizations you can get involved with:

______________________________


Lorelei Williams is President
Oníra Philanthropic Advisors
“Social Investment: From Idea to Impact”
www.oniraglobal.com

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