[From the editor: John Campbell, a resident of Austerlitz, New York, is founder of JCINTIME, LLC, a creative management and production company. He has produced award-winning films and documentaries, manages movie, theatrical and television directors and writers, and has also had a career in the financial industry. Recently, he produced the documentary “The Infamous Future,” which we wrote about here. Involved in a number of local organizations, he is a new board member of the Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon.]

Like other Black men who live a very good life in Upstate New York, I am consistently reminded of race. When I drive my expensive car, when I go to the grocery store, or go to an Upstate event, I am sometimes followed, questioned or stopped by police. I've even had cops drive all the way down my driveway to the front of my home, and not say a word because I'm sure they realize they are on my property. Maybe they wonder if that really is my house, or if I am the owner of the car.

Race to any Black person is an underlying factor. Why? Because if you see me as equal, you would value me the same. My question is, what effort do you consciously make as a member of society to have compassion and consideration when it comes to race. Is that not what we all want? All the awards and accolades I have achieved over many years, all the boards and committees that I have chaired and participated on do not exclude me from racial injustice.

I have enough stories and unjust incidents to never forget in my lifetime. I've never been charged, arrested…and never apologized to, I've been supposedly mistaken, I've been followed to private villas and mansions, never with an apology for their assumptions, when my intention and action is always for the greater good.

Three years ago, I sat in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn with a friend discussing his support to an event I was producing for the arts, and the very same situation that transpired between Amy Cooper and Chris Cooper happened to me. It was disturbing. I had to deal with a white woman's outrage for her wrong of not having her dog on a leash (with the signs all around). In that moment those leash laws don’t matter, and now I'm the one that is wrong?

I once shared with an audience that it can feel like having a 20-pound weight in your bag, and told to carry it with you each day, and oh, still keep you head up, smile, and hold your feelings in on any injustice until you get home.

I talk to kids of all races and encourage kids of color how to respond when confronted with racism, and how to diffuse a negative. I also encourage many white kids, supporting their feelings on seeing racism or injustice and how they can help. That is liberating, because before anything else, we are the HUMAN race.

So today, in this moment, and for the first time in my adult life in America, so many people are paying attention to race on a national level. And yet there are others who want this whole thing to just be over — no more than I want racism to be over.

What kind of world do you want to be a part of, and what are you doing to make sure that happens? In a country that is majority white, your life has always mattered. When I am faced with any type of racism, the first feeling I have is... do I not matter too? My hope is that when I see you, and greet you, and support you, even when I don't know you, that you would do the same for people of color, particularly Black men. See us with the best of you.

We have been tried and tested, have you? I sincerely hope not, but if you haven't, then maybe ask yourself, why not? How must he or she feel as a person of color to be tested each day they exist? I have many close white friends who I love dearly, and I have been overwhelmed with their hearts wanting to see change, wanting to do something. Many have taken action.

Here's what I suggest. Call your member of Congress, mayor or community leader and see if there is anything being organized, or any community efforts where you can participate for the greater good.

Almost 100 years ago, the Tulsa Race Massacre happened. This was called the single worst incident of racial violence in American history, where mobs of white residents attacked Black residents and businesses, and burned down one of the wealthiest Black communities in the country. In the mental and emotional sense, maybe there's a lesson there even for me. Maybe now we have the opportunity to burn down our closed minds, rebuild a way of being where we are all celebrated, we are all united. After all, the name of our country is The United States of America.

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Written by
John Campbell