Speaking the Truth regarding racism.

After the shooting in Charleston, a former student of mine shared these words.

"I hope that soon we will realize that the real issue is the concept of race, that people are inherently different one from another. We are not different. We are essentially the same on the inside. The lie that has been told to us that we are fundamentally and ontologically different needs to be exposed for what it is, a lie that is wholly detrimental to all of us. We can keep playing games and changing a few laws here and there, or we can finally admit that the real problem is the unequal valuation of human worth. Whether it is because of the color of our skin, our gender, our orientation, the language we speak, the name that we call God, this unequal valuation continues to harm us all. As Dr. King said every human being is a child of God created in God's image and therefore deserves to be respected as such. Until we all recognize this we will continue with police shootings of unarmed black men, with gross disparities between peoples of different colors, and with atrocities like that which took place at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Until we finally do something serious to undo race's power over us, these horrible acts will remain commonplace. Let's stop ignoring the problem, excusing the problem, overlooking the problem, and being the problem, and let's finally once and for all end the use of the social construct called race and it's power over us!"