First off, I think I’d be remiss in my duties as a human being if I didn’t talk about the big huge elephant in the room.

Our country is in a really weird time.  I think when I open my kid’s history book, it will be unreal – the book will talk about social unrest, racial tensions, and a certain Apprentice turned presidential hopeful that captured the hearts of an alarming number of people.  It’s going to sound really cool, and exciting, but living it?  Waking up to another incidence of police using deadly force?  It’s not fun.  It doesn’t feel fun.  And because social media is so prevalent, you get to hear every single person’s opinion on every single topic.  Which is really fun when you find out one of your acquaintances from high school is at best, misinformed, but at worst, flagrantly racist/sexist/homophobic.  (Not fun at all).

I don’t know what to say about all of this except that I’m ready to wake up one time, ONE TIME, and have it be a good news day.  With that, I leave you with this…

A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO BECOMING AN ALLY TO THE BLACK COMMUNITY

I’ve always liked this woman.  I started looking at her blog when I was still in grad school I think, and she always seemed to have a really decent head on her shoulders.  If you’re someone who feels genuinely concerned for the state of things, but you wonder how you can help, or what us black folks are talking about all the time, this is a really good way to start.  Generally, I approach this stuff with a grain of humor, like “haha, white people, please stop asking to touch my hair all the time,” or “tee hee, no, I cannot braid your hair,” but I’m just not in the mood today.

Tomorrow will be a better day, right?