How is this still happening?

This is the year I turn 40. Most of the time I feel like a young man, though I’m not. The murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery are the latest reminders that while I’ve been growing old, the world continues with the same old prejudices. 

The inhumane beating of Rodney King at the hands of the LAPD in 1991, and the subsequent riots that swept across LA made a thankfully non-physical mark on me; a year or two later, I distinctly recall the murder of Stephen Lawrence in London. The bleak inequity of it horrified me. It still does. And yet, almost 30 years later, people who don’t look like me are suffering the same dehumanising injustices at the hands of people who absolutely do look like me. 

Sometimes I feel like I live my life in the pages of a children’s book. The people I associate with on a daily basis are warm and open, generous, and they display no prejudices. I have the privilege of passing through the world associating only with well-meaning, kind and open-minded people. For a long time I thought that niceness was enough: that being unprejudiced myself was all I could possibly do. But it's not enough. I’m still unsure of what else I can do, but, as I get older, and I recognise that I’m potentially half way through my life, and that so far I’ve taken no proactive steps to put right the disgust I felt when I learned of Rodney King or Stephen Lawrence, I realise I need to do more.

I don't have much to offer, but I do have a voice and a vote:

I will actively seek out political parties that aim to obliterate the racial wealth gap by whatever means necessary (my personal feeling is that we need a wealth tax to re-balance society across races).

I will never vote for political parties that shy away from tackling race issues.

I will do my best to bring my children up to be allies in the fight against racism.

I will continue to educate myself as to what it means to be anything other than white in a white-centric society, and I hope to be brave enough to call out prejudice when I see it.

I have a platform and I will use that to raise others up. If you’re a runner or a track and field athlete and you have something to say, DM me. I’d love to help.

To create lasting change we need to persuade the broader white population to never again vote for dip-shit despots like Donald Trump. That's where the real hopelessness lies: how do you engage a population that has been radicalised into feeling pride in its ignorance and apathy to the lives of anyone outside its immediate circle? 

As Brexit showed, young white liberals no longer have the language to connect with this group. That needs to change, but how?

I'm at a loss. I'm eager to hear your solutions.