I have been thinking a lot about you because the reality is that the biggest killer of you my white male cousins, is yourself. Seven out of ten suicides in 2015 were you, my beloved white male cousins, especially those of you who live in rural areas like the one I grew up in with so many of you. You, my dear white male cousins ages 45–56, die of despair through suicide or drug or alcohol addiction related incidents more than any other cause. My beloved cousins, why aren’t we in our large white family talking about that? (Here is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1–800–273–8255)
And you and I, my dear and precious white women cousins, are 1000 times more likely to be killed by our husbands or boyfriends or ex-husbands or ex-boyfriends than by an immigrant, refugee, foriegn terrorist or stranger of color. Yet you keep sending me those chain emails telling me how to protect myself from car jacking strangers. Here is the domestic violence hotline 1−800−799−7233 or TTY 1−800−787−3224. Why, my sweet white women cousins aren’t we spending as much time checking up on each other about what is happening in our homes and relationships as we are posting memes about cats and scary terrorists?
So dear and beloved cousins of European ancestry here in the USA, can we please start talking about what’s really hurting and killing our wide and extended family? Can we begin to heal ourselves and our kin instead of spending our time being afraid of people who are statistically rarely a harm to us and historically have been vastly harmed by our institutions and systems?
You are beloved to me, we share history, culture, and DNA strains! I want us to survive and thrive!
Love,
your distance cousin Lizann