Kingston Frazier was a 6-year-old boy who died from multiple gunshot wounds after his mother’s car was stolen from a parking lot with him sleeping inside while his mother stopped in at a store. Three black male teenagers were arrested and will be charged with capital murder. 

I e-mailed this reflection to a couple friends and mentors just like this, and I don’t know how else to post it.

I don’t want to be an irresponsible white voice. I don’t want to hurt people. There’s the hurt of truth that can bring good change and the hurt of words that actually do harm. Please let me know my blind spots and if this is a time when I would do more good sitting down and listening rather than speaking. I want to learn how to not be complicit in my white silence, but it feels really messy and scary to work through a constructive way of speaking. I don’t feel qualified. And I worry about my voice replacing voices of color.

I want to honor the life of Kingston. I want to honor the life of his family and the other three families involved. I don’t want to reduce Kingston to a cause. I don’t want to ride in as a knight in shining armor on my white horse as defender to black lives. I don’t want to speak as a white savior. I don’t know how to do this right, and surely I will fail in ways. Surely I am missing something or many things. [Read more…]