Words are important. I have said it before, and I will say it again.

This past week was another one filled with bloodshed. It is heartbreaking. It is disgusting. And it has become far too commonplace.

I am fighting every part of me that wants to feel numb, that wants to throw up my hands in the air and say, what can I do?

I don’t have the answer to all this gun violence. All this killing. I wish I did.

What I can talk about is the language describing this violence and what it reveals about our country.

From the The New York Times,

“A gun battle erupted inside a Planned Parenthood center here on Friday when a man armed with an assault-style rifle opened fire and began shooting at officers as they rushed to the scene. The authorities reported that three people were killed, a police officer and two civilians, and nine were wounded before the suspect finally surrendered more than five hours after the first shots were fired.” The full article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/us/colorado-planned-parenthood-shooting.html.

The suspect, Robert Lee Dear, shot 12 people. He is not labeled a terrorist in this passage. He is merely a man involved in “a gun battle” with police.

From The New York Times,

“For hours on Friday, officers traded gunfire with him inside the clinic before they were able to shout to the man and persuade him to give up, according to Lt. Catherine Buckley, a police spokeswoman.”

Dear traded gunfire with the officers. He was not killed. He was persuaded to give up.

According to Merriam-Webster.com, privilege is “a right or benefit that is given to some people and not to others.”

It seems like a lot of white people have trouble understanding what white privilege is or even deny that it exists.

It does exist. And this is what it is. It is this man still alive. It is this man not being immediately labeled a terrorist. And it is so many other things.

I’m lucky enough to walk around with this advantage tacked to my skin. It strikes me as an incredibly absurd advantage, but one that so obviously exists.

One of our greatest gifts as humans is our capacity for empathy. We all need to use it more.

Instead of saying all lives matter, think for a second about how maybe some lives are looked at and valued differently. Maybe some people are automatically guilty because of the color of the skin. Maybe you should stop and listen, instead of hiding behind that white skin and ignoring the things that are happening around you. Try for just a second to imagine, what is like to be young, black, and male in this country.

This week’s video is “Get Down” by P.O.S. Here’s my confession: After thinking about all these things yesterday and dealing with some homeowner stuff, I had a five minute dance break in my kitchen to this song (A lovely concept introduced to me by my friend, Susanna). Sometimes, you do just need to get down. But then, I finished this blog post because I can’t ignore these things either.