"The problem is that my generation was pacified into believing that racism existed only in our history books."
-Chance The Rapper

I have had the hardest time writing lately. Every time I sit in front of my computer screen, I am met with a blankness. What can you say that holds weight today? What can make people wake up to what is happening in front of them?

The story that's being written is one we have seen before.

In history books, where many of us believed that racism stopped, everyone except those with black and brown skin. As children, we never knew it existed. We only wanted to play. Laughter, giggles and petty fights filled hallways and classrooms of elementary schools — especially where I lived. I was raised in the DC area, the once melting pot of the country; the first stop to citizenship.

I remember the moment I knew I was black, and the words hurt.

I always knew my skin was brown, and I knew we all came in different shades, but I didn't think there was anything wrong with it until the day a boy gave me the nickname 'burnt toast.' This name was quickly met with a fist, and from there, I questioned everyone who saw race. The police who said that because I was black, they didn't believe my statement about being assaulted to a little boy in middle school whom I was told never to sit with. I asked them, what did I do that made you hate me? I never found the answer that made sense to me.

Then the hatred was hidden, today it's displayed.

When I was in school, and even my entry into adulthood, racism was always taught as wrong. But as I bring my kids up, they are seeing leaders chant 'send them back', human beings placed in cages and separated from their families. Is this what we want our country to come too?

We worry about terrorism coming in when it's being birthed and raised within.

Terrorism looks like the man who is running this country. It looks like the ones who are walking into a room full of strangers and using them for target practice. Terrorism is the man carrying an assault rifle shooting while others are enjoying family time, shopping, or a night out on the time. Too many times we are calling it mental health, but mental health doesn't make you drive 10 hours to commit premeditated murder, hatred does.

We need to change our story. We cannot be great while encouraging hate.