Stop acting out of fear. We should be the first to humble ourselves, admit we don’t have the answers and that we don’t fully understand the problem. We must be the first to love people as ourselves and lay down our privileges and our ideas of privilege and expectations of life. We talk about wanting to end human rights abuses and restore human dignity; well, what about the dignity of your doorman? your grocery clerk? your babysitter? the homeless person on your corner? the boss you are constantly slandering?

It’s great to care about our brothers and sisters around the world (#Kony2012) but what about our brothers and sisters stuck in cycles of poverty in our cities? In our schools? Highly hypocritical to point out the problems “over there” and ignore our own.

Charles Murray brilliantly discusses solutions to classism in White America here.
[If there is growing segregating in our race, can you image the segregation that is still taking place between our race and the others. Don’t see the differences? Look at the opportunities afforded to those born in the Projects verses those born less than 10 blocks away in the Village. ]

Equality isn’t sameness.

Empathy isn’t fixing.

Understanding happens when we admit that we just don’t know.