Dad Admits He’s Afraid To Walk His Dog Without His Child and It Should Be Required Reading
without one of his daughters or dog present."Without them by my side, almost instantly, I morph into a threat in the eyes of some white folks," he explained.In a post that he published on his page that has been shared over 39,000 times and has amassed over 20,000 likes, Richards explained that he's been trying to walk twice a day, but always with his dog, Ace, or one of his two daughters in tow.
"I would be scared to death to take these walks without my girls and my dog," he wrote."In fact, in the four years living in my house, I have never taken a walk around my neighborhood alone ."Or worse, accuse him of"playing the race card" --"but this is my reality." "When I'm walking down the street holding my young daughter's hand and walking my sweet fluffy dog, I'm just a loving dad and pet owner taking a break from the joylessness of crisis homeschooling," he explained. But without them, the 6-foot 2-inch"athletically built black man in a cloth mask" is a threat"walking around in a place where he doesn’t belong" to his white neighbors."Even though, I'm still the same guy who just wants to take a walk through his neighborhood," he added. He explained that it's"equal parts exhausting and depressing to feel like I can't walk around outside alone, for fear of being targeted." "We live in a world where there is a sizable amount of people who actually believe that racism isn't a thing, and that White Privilege is a made-up fantasy to be politically-correct," he explained."Yes, even despite George Floyd, Christian Cooper, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor , some people still don't seem to get it."The first is that having white privilege doesn't mean that your life isn't hard. "It simply means that your skin color isn't one of the things contributing to your life difficulties," he explained."Case in point, if it never crossed your mind that you could have the cops called on you for simply bird watching [like Christian Cooper] then know that is a privilege that many black/brown people don't currently enjoy." Two, if your first response to"Black Lives Matter" is to counter with"All Lives Matter," think twice. That's because"it's insensitive, tone-deaf and dumb," he wrote."All lives can't matter until black lives matter." Three,"Racism is very real, and please don't delude yourself into thinking it's limited to the fringes of the hardcore MAGA crowd," he continued."As Amy Cooper proved, it's just as prevalent in liberal America as it is anywhere else."Five, if racism is going to get better"white allies are absolutely critical." "If you're white and you've read this far, hopefully you care enough to be one of those allies," he added."Please continue to speak up , because your voices matter to [People of Color] now more than ever.""If these atrocities won't get you to speak up, then honestly, what will?" he continued. "If you aren't willing to take a stand against actions that could get me hurt or killed, it's hard to believe that you ever cared about me in the first place," he added. Richards ends his post by saying that for now, he's decided to continue walking with his 8-year-old daughter or small dog.If that sounds wrong or backward to you, it is.The response to his post was overwhelmingly supportive.. It is way past time for your reality to be different. This country, this world has let so many PoC down a change is long overdue." "I am so sorry that because of the way this country is right now, you can't feel safe walking in your own neighborhood," a second person commented."My thoughts go out to you. Black lives do matter!""This is so real," she wrote."My husband told me yesterday, 'I'm gonna go for a walk around the block' and my first thought was, take one of the kids with you. For this same reason, with the kids he is seen as a loving dad, without them he is seen as a threat. It's just not fair.""The recent news stories of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Christian Cooper, and George Floyd broke me, emotionally," he explained to the."As a black man, hearing about these stories over and over again, it felt like 'death by a thousand paper cuts.'" "It honestly felt soul-destroying," he continued."I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping well, and I was losing significant weight. Many of my very well-meaning white friends were unable to understand the depths of my grief, so I wanted to put my own experiences in writing in hopes that it could be useful to them, and cathartic for me.""Many people said that they were inspired to take action to be active allies because of what they read in my post," he explained. "I'm all about positive change, and if this post played a small role in helping people to share more kindness, empathy and love with their fellow humans, regardless of race, then I would be thrilled," he added.He said it"breaks his heart" that he can neither protect nor prevent his daughter from true racism. But that won't stop him from speaking out because there's always the chance he can make things better for them. And he's asking white people who want to make a change to speak up now too. "Not being a racist is not good enough," he said."We need as many good white people as possible who are actively standing in opposition of racism."
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