Dear White People: Please Stop Tolerating #BlackLivesMatter

Donald Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech got me thinking.

Not only about the popular quote that tells us that “When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and bearing the cross,” but also about the way he touted the (quite inaccurate) fact that the U.S. was the most tolerant country in the world.

I have been guilty in the past of using the term “tolerant” to describe an open, liberal, inclusive society or mind-set, yet since I started forcing myself to examine my own white privilege, it became obvious just how insulting that idea is.

Equality is not something to be endured. Diversity is not to be suffered. People of Colour are not an annoyance.

Change will only come when those in a position of power (that’s us white people) truly embrace it, and that means we need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves. Or patting ourselves on the back if we come across as merely annoyed at the situation rather than outraged at the fact that “the other” is finally speaking up and questioning the authority of the status quo.

Nothing illustrates that point better than the recent shocking interview with the well-known British historian David Starkey, where he stated that “Slavery was not genocide — otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn Blacks in…