"If you see something, say something." In the years after 9/11, people grabbed on to this as a way to prevent terrorism.

 

But what if we embraced it as a way to eliminate discrimination?

 

So when walking with a girlfriend who wants to cross to the other side of the street when she sees a young Black man, we say, "you know that's demonizing and discriminatory, right?"

 

When a person at work refers to the China virus we say "That's really durogatory. Don't do that."

 

When a woman is talked over at family dinner or in a meeting, we interrupt and say, "I want to hear what SHE was trying to say."

 

When someone uses the term 'terrorist' to be synonymous with 'Arabic' we say, "that's ignorant and hurtful and wrong."

 

If we could each commit to saying something whenever we saw acts of discrimination, no matter how small, we could change things.

 

These episodes of national grief over violence based on race, religion, sexuality, or perceived otherness are too little, too late.

 

If you see something, hear something, say something.