Positively, nurturing my relationship with racism has enriched my relationships with others. This relationship calls for my unwavering awareness and responsiveness. I am touched by every racial injustice, as if the victim were a member of my own family. Negatively, nurturing my relationship with racism fortifies the general grief I feel realizing that this relationship is not one I choose to be in, but one I must. Nurturing my relationship with racism has become a bustle that has both positive and negative effects on my life and experiences. By nurture, I mean develop an understanding of how racism affects me, in addition to observing how that understanding dictates my thoughts and behaviors. My unending objective is to nurture this relationship with racism so that it moves from being a burden I attempt to ignore to an aspect of my life that I have more control over.

What I have learned about racism from conversations with family and friends, posts on social networks, and encountering racism face to face, is that each individual has their own relationship with racism. Over the years, I have begun to feel as if I have to grab racism and situate it in a place where the mere thought of its existence does not dictate the decisions I make or how I communicate with others. In the meantime, perhaps like many others, I am struggling to find a place for racism in my life. From news articles to social media commentary, there is one universal take away: America is not a post-racial society and there is a long road towards reaching a civilization where racism is not a stimulus for murder or injustice. These tragedies sparked nationwide and international discourse on racism and discrimination in the United States. This raw tragedy, motivated by racism and hatred, occurred in the midst of several police killings of unarmed Black men.

On June 17, 2015, nine people were shot and killed at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC.

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