Dear Brothers and Sisters, we are experiencing a racial moment.

The events of Monday, November 23, 2020 sent a clear message throughout Southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley: the Black/Brown male body must respect the “authority of a white man” or suffer death.

It was a Jackson county-wide broadcast.

This message was clarified by how the local media stations chose to write the headlines and frame the situation. The frame was: Good white man argues with Black teenager and killed the Black teenager. White man pleads not guilty.

This broadcast was so clear, it created an immediate backlash within the dominant white community. Hundreds of white residents strained against the weight of being viewed in the same light as the murderer. Distance! They wanted a method to establish distance between them and this message.

Days after the broadcast, Ashland Police Chief, a white male, was forced to retract his initiate statement insinuating it was Aidan Ellison’s refusal to obey the command of a white man which lead to his murder. The chief admitted accused, Robert Keegan was, and is, alone responsible for Ellison’s murder, not loud music!

Whether the Rogue Valley likes it or not, race is the subject of this moment.

The denial and justifications being used by the dominant white population in the face of race is worth taking note. Those white bodied persons who are having a difficult time connecting to this racial moment are worth taking note of.

Like those white people living during lynching days, most of the Rogue Valley’s white population does not appear to be fighting to change the racial consciousness of the Rogue Valley, but, rather, to affirm to Black and Brown bodies that they, as individuals, are trustworthy persons and do not deserve to be treated in light of the current trauma. Let me be plain: they seek Black and Brown bodies to remain unaffected by the trauma of this moment and in their presence discuss the trauma intellectually, without any grief expression.

A second message is sent by this demand for emotional labor. The mental health of Black and Brown persons is not valued, it is physical access to our bodies that is valued. Our white friends and family tell us, they do not know how we feel about or how we process the racial caste condition Black and Brown men find ourselves in. These friends, family and allies - in white bodies - plead for public civility and continued private access to our presence.

Breathe, my Brother, in the fine mist of our shared resilience in the face (knowledge) of how much value the bodies we occupy are viewed by the dominant society.

Breathe the trigger that we represent in the DNA structure of the white bodies which surround us.

Breathe in how much we DEFINE white people to themselves.

In this moment, imagine how many white bodied persons WISH to share in our communal pain. Yet, know they cannot. In this racial moment they are glimpsing what it feels like to live with racial consciousness; to know those who interact with you are doing so by unwritten rules.

The dominant population see a certain level of unity through our identification with little brother Aidan Ellison those in white bodies cannot partake in. There is no equivalency in white body culture for the experience of Black/Brown bodies.

Killing us soothes white racial trauma. It is a stress-reliever. Our Black/Brown bodies are the target. Our Black/Brown bodies are the trigger.

Yes, white-on-white violence is violence. Yet, murder and rape within the white population is not universal, like the white person demands we accept in order for them to share in our unity.

Nor, is it a logical argument that because white people kill or rape white people that is the same as when they kill or rape BIPoC. Yes, the act is the same. No, the consequences in society are not the same. Killing and raping Black/Brown bodies soothes white individuals in a way doing the same to white bodies does not.

This separation, based on race, means our white friends and family crash against the concept of how white bodied persons act as a group. Why? Because, the concept is contrary to the idea of individualism.

The 108,000 white people living in the Rogue Valley are a group. Yet, they wish to be treated as individuals who can defy the group identity and choose to do so regularly, yet the group dynamics never seem to change, despite all of this individual rebellion.

White individuals will feign white racial innocence and demand they be treated as completely disconnected from the larger group of whiteness. Forcing Black bodies to accept this impotency as fact, is the secondary effect reinforced through the passivity of the main white population following a racial incident.

Even as this racial moment happens, performative displays of allyship are to be accepted. Otherwise, the moderate white person, who wants to help, reaches a wall they do not feel they can climb.

They, plead with us. They, in their individual self, are just as terrified of the racist white person as we are in our Black and Brown bodies. Our white allies demand we accept their desire to fight racism as a bridge to unity. The appeal states, white allies and traumatized Black/Brown bodies can stand together against the “bad” white people. Let us cry together and not Black/Brown bodies traumatize each other by raging at allies for being a part of the oppressive group - against their will.

This is maddening. Yes, Black/Brown people are supposed to be so strong, we can GRIEVE/MOURN and care for our white friends and family, who, tell us to our faces, they do not know how to hold us when they are feeling so white.

Let me say this, my Brothers, in this racial moment, your mental health is important.

The anxiety/fear you are experiencing is real. It is not imaginary. I am right here with you. The only difference between you and me is hours of practice. I have felt this fear of being in a Black male body for 46 years. My response is a cultivated one.

From this (truly) shared space, I wish to tell you, ALL of your emotions are real and valid. And, yes, if you permit yourself to feel all of the abandonment issues you are experiencing right now, it can potentially initiate a nervous breakdown your white friends and family are not in a position to assist. They will misdiagnosis you through the lens of individualism, as if you are in a white body and not in a Black body being oppressed by white bodies. All of their help will backfire and they will not understand that it is their appearance which is the barrier to your subconscious accepting any emotional/spiritual help from them. They are in a white body, which means oppression.

Civility does not mean safety to you. Your white friends and family’s attempts to soothe you by saying you are physically safe is going to land as a lie. You are not safe in the presence of someone who cannot see the danger you are in whenever you are in the presence of white bodied persons, including their own. The white ally copes by forcing us to see a human-to-human interaction which is not there. A racial interaction is happening. Yes, they know race is real, however, just like you and I control our trauma response in their presence to maintain a private relationship, it is imagined we can do so in public society. See how strong we are!

What is the solution? The solution is for you to find those who do share in being the target; in being the trigger - and process our emotions with them.

Find those whom you do not have to educate. Find those whom you can cry in front of and they start crying too because they understand the psychic relief of not having to manage a white person, for a few hours, in order to survive.

This is a racial moment, my Brothers and Sisters. Reach out to me and I will reach out to you. We can and will get through this together. I love you enough to see myself in you. I build these words affirmed to you, in your being, that you are not alone. We are One and we are enough.