Image courtesy of Black Lives Matter DC on Facebook. Go join their page.

I take it as both pride and necessity to only cover local Petworth area news, avoiding national and citywide news. There’s plenty of news outlets who cover both, and they do amazing work. Petworth News is most definitely not my full time job: it’s a hobby, a way to give to my community, and what I call my “bad habit keeping me up at night” writing articles, sharing tweets, etc. I have a full-time job, a family, other things I do. If I covered more than local, it would take all my time. So, I draw a line. Local news only, and only when I can.

As so many are, I am horrified by George Floyd’s murder. I feel powerless, angry, disgusted, frustrated, depressed. On my own social media, I’m raging against the murder, the unstopping racism, the unstopping police brutality, talking and crying with my friends, with my coworkers — and I’m voting.

But as Petworth News, I was worried that if I posted only once in a while about this, it would be seen as virtue signaling. I didn’t want to start posting about Floyd’s murder and the downtown protests and demonstrations and the police brutality because I don’t have time to truly dedicate to that type of news. I have my “line.” So if I skip them, I can’t be held accountable for not covering any of it, right?

But silence is complicity and doing nothing, saying nothing, hurts others.

There should be protests all over the country, in every neighborhood.

There should be classes on white privilege, racism and unconscious bias being conducted at churches, schools, workplaces. We should all be shouting at authority and at each other to teach each other.

There is no “going back to normal” — that’s a wish predicated on white privilege, on wanting things as they were when you were comfortable — when “normal” means others are treated as less, discriminated against, arrested more, shot and killed more.

Everyone should be horrified at George Floyd’s murder. The protests are just a moment of discomfort, a miniscule moment compared to the long pain that African Americans have been subjected to in this country. Embrace it, listen to them, make calls, write letters, vote the racist president out of the White House. Protect your neighbors, no matter what they look like, believe or love.

So I’m putting this out there. I still don’t want to write about national or citywide news, because I still want to have a life outside of writing for this site. But I want my readers to know I’m listening, I’m learning. I’m committed to understanding what it means to have white privilege, to protect my neighbors, to fight against racism and discrimination, to recognize my own biases, and teach my child to understand and know what it means to take meaningful action. And I hope you are, too.

I may fuck up, but I’m trying.

Here’s some things I’ve been reading and learning from: