Before you read this post, I find it necessary to first say to you, my audience, that I write this piece without the intent of offending anyone. I do not write this post to speak on the black experience in the U.S. or to take anything away from my loved ones who live it every day. I write this piece from the depths of my heart and soul and as a way to share my beliefs and express my love for all of humanity.

These past few weeks, while living in the United States, have been filled with sadness, fear, turmoil, and, unfortunately, lots of hatred. I cannot speak for the black community because I am, in fact, not black. I do not pretend for one second to say that I understand the black experience, especially not the black experience in the United States of America, because I have never lived it. What I have lived is a life filled with friends and family from all different walks of life. People who do not share the same color skin, nor the same religion, nor the same sexual preference as I, but we share one thing in common, and it is the most important of all. We share an undeniable love for one another.

This love is the same love that I was taught to show to others. It is a love for humanity and the souls that lay within the physical bodies of each person. As a way of teaching me this love, my parents made sure that I understood that we are all equals. The famous “never judge a book by its cover” was something always said in my house. My parents always said that you should determine who a person is solely based on their heart. It is something I’ve used throughout my life to decide who I allow to remain in my life and who I let go.

One day, when I was around five years old, I came home and asked my biological father why my best friend was black, and I was white. My father gave me what I believe is the best explanation anyone could give a young child, and this is what I plan to repeat to my future children. My father said, “You know how there are rainbows in the sky, and they are all different colors? Well, God made us all different colors so that there would be a rainbow on Earth like there is in the sky.” That was all my father had to say to me to understand that we may all look different, but we are created the same. To this day, this simple explanation forms part of my core beliefs.

As most people know, I am a traveler. I have traveled 6 of 7 continents, and I have had experiences outside of the typical human experience of staying in one country for the majority of their life. I recognize that this is a privilege. I am beyond blessed to have had the ability to travel and experience other cultures with my own eyes, ears, and heart. Travel has opened the doors for me to meet new people and listen to and learn from human experiences that are not my own. It has also allowed me to view my culture from other viewpoints and be a spectator standing on the outside looking in.

What I have been able to see while on the outside is a country that says it prides itself on being a melting pot, but it insists on creating a divide within the pot. This divide is amplified through politics, race, religion, sexual preference, profession, and gender. The main idea that divides us is the idea that we cannot be different and love each other at the same time. My friends and I prove that differences of opinion, race, gender, religion, and sexual preference do not make us hate one another. It’s the opposite. It makes us love each other. I love my friends for being different than me. I value the voices of my friends who have lived a human experience that is unlike mine. I listen to their stories, and I learn from them. I may not know what it is like to “walk a mile” in their shoes, but I try my best to listen, educate myself, and comprehend the emotion behind their human experience.

Through my friends, I have heard stories of what it is like to be black in the U.S., what it is like to be an immigrant in the U.S., what it is is like to be a Muslim in the U.S., what it is like to be gay in the U.S., and the list goes on. I do not pretend to understand their experience fully because I cannot fully understand an experience that is not my own. Still, I acknowledge it, I respect it and push myself to learn from it, and most importantly, I empathize with it. To me, Black Lives Matter is much more than just a hashtag; it’s a reality that many of my friends live.

The recent events that have taken place in this country have broken my heart. I have physically felt my heartbreaking. My heart breaks for my black friends who continually feel the need to defend their worth. My heart breaks for the mothers who have lost their sons and daughters to racism and injustice in this country. My heart breaks for the peaceful protesters who have been given a bad name by people who have a different personal agenda. My heart breaks for police officers who signed up to do a job that they believed would create a better society. My heart breaks for humanity.

It breaks my heart and infuriates me that I am the third generation in my family to protest for black rights because things have not changed since my grandmother marched for Civil Rights or since my mother, along with her family, protested against segregation. I am appalled and dismayed that it is 2020, and my friends are not treated as my equal. Not only are they not treated as equals by a specific group of people, but the system still treats them as less than. This is the case for all minorities in America. Yet, in this current moment, the focus is on black people in America and the fact that after hundreds of years of black people fighting to be seen as equal, the system continues to fail them. We, as a society, have failed them. I do not believe that what is happening in the United States right now is Black v.s. White, nor is it People v.s. Police, it is THE PEOPLE v.s. THE CORRUPT SYSTEM.

I believe that we live in a society ruled by a system that would like to see us divided, but the one thing that will always unite us is love. I refuse to allow what is happening in this country to fill my heart with hate. I refuse to allow the anger that I feel to become fuel for hatred. I refuse to create more of a division within society. I have always stood for and will continue to stand for human rights. I choose to lead by example and demonstrate through my actions that I stand for all of my friends, not just some. I will stand up for you and speak up for your rights when your voice fails you. I do not care about your race, religion, sexual preference, gender, profession, or political affiliation. I have a voice, and I refuse to stand by in silence while I watch my friends suffer. I believe what we see happening in the United States of America right now will have a ripple effect across the world. Racism exists not only in this country but globally, and I genuinely believe that this is the match that will light all of the others. It will spark much-needed conversations within countries, communities, and families. It will force the people who have created and enforce the system to listen. It will create change.

As a humanitarian, I wholeheartedly believe that we should be the change that we want to see in the world. The change that I want to see in the world is one in which we all agree that not only are we created as equals, but that we should be treated as equals. This change will happen if we allow ourselves to listen to the struggles of others and empathize with it. The change will come when we allow that empathy to fill our hearts with love and spread that love to one another. Love one another for our similarities and our differences. The key ingredient to make our rainbow on Earth just as beautiful as the one in the sky is love. Feel it, be it, spread it.