I started this blog to talk about technical ideas I’m having or to write helpful guides for subjects I find interesting. But something has been on my mind in lieu of the reaction to our targeted police aggression. I’m not here to judge or disregard the actions and thoughts of our different social groups. But I do see a lot of apprehension from both sides.

And by both sides I mean the victimized side and the privileged side. There is barrier that is holding us back from truly uniting us all to bring an end to systemic racism. I think that barrier is the lack of consistency. We have a lack of consistency in the judicial system, a lack of consistency in law enforcement, and a lack of consistency in our efforts to fight for each other. We’ve seen it happen time and time again, an atrocious act of violence and bigotry creates shockwaves through every community and people stand together to fight for what’s right.

And then once the moment fades away, so does the movement to fight against this unjust cruelty. That’s what I want to address here. We can’t let the same corrupt institutions retake a firm foothold after the hype dies out after a few weeks/months. We have to find ways to sustain change and reenforce it in every aspect of our lives. I know we each are limited by the extent of our reach. We can only influence so many since we can only be heard by so many.

But facilitating change does not have to begin and end with the organized masses. Organized protests are an amazing way to raise awareness to those in charge, but the change we badly need doesn’t stop there. We can begin to establish a cultural shift using only our relationships and awareness. If we all look outside our bubble and consistently build up the people and institutions around us, we can begin to chip away at racism and bigotry.

But what can I do to help lift my brother up? I have said to myself many times, “I want to help, but where do I begin?” A great way to help is to support our black-owned local businesses. Rather than bee-lining from my car to my front door when I get home, I can pop in to the local mom-and-pop shop and say hi, maybe chat for a bit and grab a bite to eat rather than ordering Papa John’s from home. Instead of getting my morning coffee from Starbucks or Dunkin’, I can stop at one of the local coffee shops I discovered.

I talk about my idea to begin uniting all races and all backgrounds together here. And this only takes the smallest amount of energy too. The best way to start is to research and discover the diversity in your surrounding area. Once you learn the specifics of diversity in your community then you can start to establish multiethnic awareness in it.

Create a presence and build a relationship with your local business owners of a different race. Don’t force it, let it be authentic. But don’t stop there. Engage with your community. Don’t shy away from approaching someone that doesn’t look like you. Approach every race free of all conviction. Drop all preconceived notions and reservations you may have because they seem unfamiliar to your image. And maintain these relationships. Continue providing value to unite your neighborhood. And extend your positive action by vocalizing this way of thought.

Speak your mind to your neighbors and share your philosophy when given the chance. People will witness your behavior and begin to act similarly. They will see your positive demeanor and joy you bring to those around you and gain this urge to do the same. Then the people around them will begin to follow their example and so forth. This will create a ripple effect and soon this behavior will be adopted far beyond your reach.

If we can get enough people to dismiss all their unprovoked judgement and begin to adopt such unprejudiced perspective, soon nobody will be singled out and persecuted for their looks. Now, this will not happen overnight. This will be something we give to our younger generation, then they give to their younger generation and so forth.

We can then begin to rid this world of the aggressive, motiveless bigotries we have continued to witness year after year. The leaders of our institutions will be replaced, the xenophobic ideas will cease to be passed down to younger generations, a new welcoming mindset will take hold on a massive scale. There are so many good people in all positions of this world, we just need to amplify this message so it is impossible to ignore.