BLACK PEOPLE REALLY NEED US WHITE PEOPLE TO SEE

So this is really on my heart. And I want to say it well. I don't want to make people feel defensive and stop reading, although you sure can't please everyone! The segregated and racist mess that St Louis has been for a long time is being shown all over the nation right now. I have always been one to want to hang out with black people, and I remember when I moved to STL, many white people saying, "How does it feel to be free of the racist south?" And me thinking - Um I'm not sure you're looking around. This may be worse here. But its not so easy to see and so my post is intended to help w seeing. I can understand, to the degree that I can understand, why black people are really angry. Its so easy to not see. I've worked where I've been the only white worker and all my co-workers black; I've worked to serve patients in mostly black neighborhoods - some of the neighborhoods that are on the news; I've made black friends; I'm raising black foster children. And its even still easy for me to not see if I don't want to. But the thing I want people to see is how isolated black people feel from white actions and privilege. And I also want people to see how its way not so simple as just make better choices, when practically everything around black peoples' communities is working against our white people's judgement of what a good choice is. So the movie "Amistad" shows how black people were brought here in the first place against their will. And then the movie, "12 Years a Slave" shows very well how black people were treated as slaves. And the movie "Mississippi Burning" or "To Kill A Mockingbird" shows how they were treated after they were free. And the movie "Crash" shows really well the treatment today which is called white privilege. And just being pushed aside and pushed aside by the race that has more power, along with the social problems that make it extra hard to cope with that bitterness, makes the bitterness and anger mount. And I am not saying that bitterness and anger expressed this way are right - I wholeheartedly agree that they are sins. But its not so easy to never sin is it? We all struggle - that's why we need Jesus. But its a hard place to be these angry black people in our city right now. And its a hard place to be anyone who is involved and wondering how do we bring about change for the better. Would you please see this need and pray with me about it?