Dear white pastors & leaders,

I’m assuming some of you are going to make statements on the events of this week. Do not center white comfort over Black oppression. Name and engage white supremacy.

Remember: public proclamations without public change is public performance.

And stop making these Black people go through so much trauma to believe the best about white folk. Be honest, the worst of white folk is in your church. They in your church. They don’t care about what your 1 or 2 or 5 Black people going though. They just don’t.

This ain’t a time for white optimism. Nope. Tell the truth—the white people in your church are worst than you realized. They blaming Black people for their deaths, celebrating white murderous terrorist, and standing with people who stand against Black people you say you love.

I feel for the Black people in your church. If you want to be honest, Black people in your churches have to kill apart of themselves just to live around white evangelicals. It ain’t right. It ain’t love. It’s abuse. And every time you are not honest, it’s traumatic. It just is.

There have been so many events of racial terror that has happened and every time white leaders want Black people to believe that this death will finally be what changes white people in their churches. They want us to hold out hope that they will finally give up white supremacy.

You just don’t know the tears that many around you have cried because once again you chose white comfort over standing with Jesus as Jesus stands with terrorized and abused Black bodies. It’s time out for it. As Baldwin asked, how long must we wait on your progress?

I’m no longer in that space but I know what that space does both to white and people of color. And white leaders do as well. Insanity they say is doing the same thing over and expecting different results. That’s what’s been happening. Same conversations, statements, and outcomes.

The question is: if white pastors and leaders believe they want change and still doing the same thing over and over, are they insane or do they just not care?

Because you can’t be both.

You can’t love Black people and center white power and white comfort.