When you insist that BIPOC talk about their painful experiences with racism without expressing any pain, rage, or grief, you are asking them to dehumanize themselves. Tone policing is both a request that BIPOC share our experiences about racism without sharing any of our (real) emotions about it and for us to exist in ways that do not make white people feel uncomfortable. (Saad, Layla F.. Me and White Supremacy (p. 51). Sourcebooks. Kindle Edition.)

Today Layla espouses another element of racism—tone policing. Basically, it means that our white fragility makes us uncomfortable with BIPOC when they speak out. Rather than attend to their message and feelings, we criticize the way they are expressing themselves. Tone policing in effect denies or downplays the message.

Isaiah teaches us about the fast the Holy One expects:

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;

When we tone police BIPOC, we bind them unjustly and tie the thongs of the yolk. Our Lenten fast should be action(s) designed to set people free to be themselves and express themselves

One additional lesson today. The pandemic also should have taught us that we are all one created by the One God but many still have not got the message because they want to keep America white. Once again, we have been reminded that we are all connected and that we are all equal. Massive winter storms have disrupted events in faraway snow-free places. Our second COVID immunization has been delayed a week because the vaccine could not be delivered here on time. The Holy One keeps reminding us that we are all equal and that we are all in this together. We will all be healed when we practice Isaiah’s fast and avoid tone policing (and all other racist thoughts and actions) of BIPOC.