Normally, I like to keep this as a space where I can laugh and escape from the world around me.

Except, this time, the world is burning right before my very eyes. It is the age-old battle of race in America. Man versus the fight for survival. Yet, this time, instead of silence, the people are fighting back.

I have always grown up in a diverse life. Being from the city of Atlanta, I have been friends with different races. I have gone to school with different races. some of my parent's greatest friends and co-workers, all races.

I always noticed something about them: they were just like me. No difference, just people.

Little did I know, they are being taught on how to not be killed by police officers over traffic violations while I ate my morning cheerios.

Racism has constantly been something that has been on the doorstep of society. If people thought it was something that could just be swept under the rug like an old, southern secret, they were wrong.

Especially, growing up in the epicenter of what used to be the 'Bible Belt', thick with slavery and injustice, I have consistently been exposed to this concept of "Black Lives Matter". Personally, I have always supported it. Simply because the color of someone's skin is not white should not strip them from certain liberties that every other person owns under the Constitution.

And I also believe that George Floyd was murdered.

He was a man, in the United States, who was cruelly stripped of his American rights, for what? An angry cop who thought he knew better. If that was the truth, millions of white men and women would be dead. but, why not.

Because of color.

It is sickening, but it the current state of our nation. The people are fighting. Yet, the looting and the destruction is not the answer either. People are calling this a protest.

No, this is riotous.

George Floyd died for something bigger than people beating down doors and busting out windows of year-old establishments.

George Floyd died for something bigger than police officers tear gassing teenagers and young children.

George Floyd died for something bigger than the physical burning of cities that have been in this country since the dawn of time.

A spark was started to put an end to racism, except this isn't the answer. Lives are being destroyed for a man who died for something bigger than mass demolition.

Fifty-one years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech. This speech was the last words he proclaimed before he was murdered the next evening.

Why was he murdered? Again, because of color as well as his amazing ability to speak out against oppression. An issue that has been writhing in pain for fifty-one years. In this speech, Dr. King said this:

" Well, I don't know what will. happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't with me now. Because I've been to the moutaintop. And I don't mind. Longevity has its place." (April 3, 1968)

Of course, my words are simply my words. the thoughts of a nation much larger than me are divided. but, for the sake of George, the Floyd family, and the hundreds of other families that have lost loved ones due to police brutality and stark racism, I hope that things begin to change.

The future is knocking on the door of the world. We just need to come together as one to open it. Remembering the things that make us whole, and not the pesky things that separate us.

Color is just a reflection of light. Let us let that light reflect unity.

Atlanta is bleeding, what are you going to do to stop it?

forbes.com