Posting black squares and flooding hashtags is one thing, but after that? Job well done, pat on the back and a drink, fellow privileged person? Not quite.

What can you do?

You can listen, and do so knowing you don’t understand. You can’t, not really, unless you’ve been there. But you can listen and learn.

You can act and speak up when someone is dismissing, racist, or in other ways degenerate towards a minority of any kind.

You can invite everyone to conversations and boardrooms, to anything at all really. Exclusion is surely a big part of the problem.

There’s nothing to fear about being decent. Not if you’re a white person, possibly male, from a safe background. I’m not going to say wealthy or anything the like, but growing up in relative safety, getting an education and decent meals every day, that’s being handed the opportunity to do something with your life. Everyone can do something with their lives, you just got a head start. I got a head start, despite not being remotely close to wealthy growing up. I felt safe, I could stop and think, decide what to do, all that jazz.

You don’t have to hit the streets, signboards and all, to make a difference. It would probably be better if people just started treating their fellow man as human, without fear and prejudice. Apparently that’s easier said than done, but why is that, really?

It takes a feeble mind to care about color of skin, about gender, about sexuality, about beliefs, or about anything personal at all really. Do your part and help these surely insecure people to find their way. We’re all just humans, in the end. Treat each other accordingly.

Photo by Hector Falcon.