After a long day of dancing to some sweet soca and afro music, I ended my Toronto Caribbean Carnival day with some much needed sleep. This morning, as I picked up my phone and scrolled through the photos my fiancé captured for me, I came across one that sent a flood of tears down my face.
It was a picture of me standing with my birth country's flag (Antigua and Barbuda) and a "Black Lives Matter" mini placard. There behind me stood a white man with his arm hovering over my shoulder and a smile on his face. He was a photobomber and an amazing one too.
I remembered T-Faye (my fiancé) smiling after I took that picture but by the time I was ready to inquire about it, we got distracted by our peers and returned to our band.
I don't know why this photo made me cry so much this morning. Perhaps it's because we continue to let evil forces with an agenda for power and money segregate us as a human race.
This could have easily been a Muslim and a Jew or even a Christian and an Atheist or a gay man and a heterosexual man or a homeless woman and a rich one. It could have been any two groups of people taking a picture together to include a Police and a member of the Black community.
But what this picture shows me is the most important solution to the problems in the world today and that is Unity. The image highlights a man who, instead of ignoring the message, chose to stand with me and show compassion for a cause he probably cannot fully understand but supports anyway. After all, most of us here on earth would love to exist in an equal and just society.
As I stared at the picture in my phone, all I could think about was the future and how beautiful it would be if we could just exist as one big happy family. Though that dream is far from becoming a reality, I believe we can each do our part to get us to that happy place.
We need to stop seeing each other as the enemy; stop looking down on each other because we walk different paths and stop allowing the media to shape our feelings towards others that they (the media) continue to stereotype. That's us giving away our power to think and feel for ourselves. To truly understand our fellow human beings, it will require conversations where we listen to each other even when the truth makes us uncomfortable.
We all have work to do in this fight to end hatred fueled by racism, classism, islamophobia, homophobia, sexism, ableism, nativism, and other forms of oppression and it can happen if we just open up our hearts and our minds.
Love is the most powerful gift on earth and it's FREE of cost! Use it today to put a smile on someone's face who looks different but bleeds the same red blood. This white man photobombed my Black Lives Matter picture and made my heart smile. I only wish I could have given him a hug. Thank you Sir.
In all that you do today, just remember that we are one family of human beings and that love wins. xoxos
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