As a Black woman, I feel weight of what Daniel Cameron has not said and done. And why.

I, like many, have an affinity for the graphic tee shirt. Most of my graphic tees offer messages of peace and of love. I don’t know that I wear them so much to convey these messages to others as much as I do to convey these messages to myself. For instance, just last Thursday I donned a black one with white letters spelling, “Luv Each Other Constantly” across my chest.

Thursday was also a day I couldn’t stop thinking about Kentucky’s first Black Attorney General, Daniel Cameron. I could not stop thinking about the fact he was making arguments before the Kentucky Supreme Court to limit the executive powers of Governor Andy Beshear as he tries to protect Kentuckians against a global pandemic. As a Black woman, it’s not lost on me that Cameron was making arguments before the Court to limit protections from a global pandemic that is disproportionately causing sickness and death to people who look like him; people who are Black like him and like me.

As I sat with it for a moment, I felt a familiar ache in my chest move to my gut. Another awareness came over me. I recognized where Daniel Cameron, Kentucky’s first Black Attorney General, was not. He was not presenting arguments before a grand jury seeking indictments against the police officers who shot and killed a sister Kentuckian, 26-year old, Breonna Taylor. He was not making arguments seeking these indictments before a grand jury in spite of the fact the Louisville Metro Council has enacted changes to law enforcement policies based on her killing or that legislation has been written in her namesake on state and federal levels. He was not making arguments before a grand jury even as a day prior, the city of Louisville agreed to pay her grieving mother, Tamika Palmer, a historic $12 million in damages due to her daughter’s brutal death at the hands of the Louisville Metro Police Department. All of these actions have been taken and yet and still, Cameron offers no timeline nor even a hint that he will do his part to protect all Kentuckians above and beyond party lines. Personally, and more painfully, his current inaction suggests he definitely won’t do it across deadly racial divides.

I recognize some people will push back on what I am saying. For a lifetime, I have experienced such push back. I have often been told to “stop playing the race card” or “race doesn’t matter” even as I have experienced racism in the moment. I no longer entertain such privileged admonishments. I can only say, as insignificant as it may seem to some, I just know what I know. I know the oppressive, insidious and rancorous nature of racism. I know how it destroys from the inside out. I know how it can have even those of us most tragically affected, turn on one another.

So, it is important for me to articulate the significance of Daniel Cameron as Kentucky’s first Black Attorney General in the year 2020. The color of his skin matters. It matters to me. The weight of his voice carries even as evidenced by his Black voice coming from a podium at the 2020 National Republican Convention. His Black voice was used to tell Black people to think for themselves. I am one of those Black people. I do my best to not only think for myself but to feel and love for myself. Included in my practice is space to allow myself to express what I think and feel and love across racial and political lines. I am proud Kentucky has its first Black Attorney General. On its face, it speaks to progress. My sincerest hope is we will see more Black people and People of Color as local and statewide elected officials. But today and over Daniel Cameron’s short tenure, I am feeling the weight of what he has not said and done and the historic reality of why. And so, it is on a day like this I will need to go to my tee shirt drawer and look for words to push me through yet another day. I will look for the one that reminds me no matter how dark it gets this is all about what we are willing to do and not do for love.

Western Kentucky native LeTonia Jones is a social justice entrepreneur and writer in search of deeper truths about love and what is required to live fully human and be at peace.