Full disclosure: I’m angry. I came to work angry about the abuse of people of color and the media/global reactions to that abuse. Why is it that an attack on people who are perceived as mostly white by a brown perpetrator is immediately called terrorism? But when the roles are reversed, we don’t want to rush to conclusions about motives. When brown people are murdered, headlines say they died. They use the verb associated with losing one’s life to old age, sickness, or an accident. Why? Why is a white man who attacks innocent people an unstable lone wolf, but a brown person who attacks innocent people a reflection on all of us? Why? 

In the Men’s Support Group today, we were asked an especially relevant question: Is there justice in the world? No one said yes. Again for the people in the back? Not one person in this group said that the world was just. Do I agree? Yes. Watching police officers murder black folks and get acquitted repeatedly. That’s not justice. Latino and Hispanic folks getting harassed about their immigration status. That’s not justice. When a man rams a van into Muslims outside of a mosque and no one asks where he was radicalized. That’s not justice. When millions of people flee violence only to have their very humanity questioned by people who would rather send them back to die than accept them into their countries. That is not justice. 

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Desmond Tutu got it right. We cannot be silent. I don’t have the solution but we must raise our voices in anger and solidarity. We can make change… it’s just going to be a little harder with this administration. If reading the news every morning and night enrages you, speak up. If hearing of these injustices make your heart ache, speak up. We are all living in this world and inequality and injustice hurts us all. If you want to hear some stories to inspire you to speak up, click here.

Tonight is Laylat Al-Qader (Night of Power) in Islam. Historically, this was when the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). We believe that this night is full of blessings and forgiveness, so many Muslims pray for their deepest desires on this night. Tonight, I will be praying for justice. I will be praying for the beautiful people I have met here in Jordan, that they find a home and community where they feel safe and accepted. I will be praying for those we’ve lost this year to extremism of all kinds. I will be praying to have the strength to keep fighting for what is right.