Maybe after this open letter, the supporters of Bill O'Reilly and Donald Trump will see a different perspective. Maybe Stacy Dash and Wendy Williams will take off their glasses of ignorance.
According to theroot.com, millennial black men and women statistically have earned more college degrees in comparison to other generations. Roughly 58 percent of black millennials will receive a post-secondary degree. It has also been stated that black millennials have higher graduation rates than their white counterparts at top tier predominately white universities. In 2016 Forbes released its annual "30 under 30" list highlighting 30 millennials in 20 different fields and many black millennials made these lists.
My question to white America, or the “silent majority” is what solutions do you have so that I don’t have to fear for my life?
Even though I may have a clean criminal record, I will be racially profiled by wearing certain clothing that you eventually culturally appropriate. I go to college to get a good education, but HBCUs are underfunded compared to PWIs. I do my best in high school only to find out that our urban school districts don’t even receive the same attention as the suburban ones. I try to go to church to pray, but sometimes I fear another terrorist may come shoot me to start a race war.
You expect me to mourn when there's a loss of an animal, but I am criticized when I say “Black Lives Matter.” I am criticized for mourning a human life. I see white rapists getting off easily, then I see a black woman dying in jail for a routine traffic stop.
What do you want me to do? How can I live the American dream when I have been set up to fail? I’m extending the open hand to see what solutions you have because all I have heard from you has been criticisms but not realistic resolutions.
To my white twitter activists and celebrities: I agree with what you say on social media, however, I just have one request as a black millennial. Can you use your platform to voice our concerns to people who need to hear it? Yes, having the conversation is great, but just speaking to the oppressed about their oppression without speaking to your community is counter-productive. You are just capitalizing off of black pain if you are scared to stand up to the ones who feel we are insignificant. Use your platform to speak this same life you speak with passion to us, to the people who don’t think #BlackLivesMatter. Speak to those networks that wouldn’t care to hear our perspective. Use your voice to bring people, ALL people, together. Use your platform to speak to communities who aren’t hearing our cries.
I hope that as a country we really can have an open honest discussion about what’s going on, we will be able to admit that there is a racial issue, we can resolve the issue instead of hiding from it, and we could ALL live in peace and harmony together without judgment. I would love to live in a country where in 2016 I am not worrying about dying based on the color of my skin.
So my last question to white America is: do #ALLLivesMatter if Black Lives don’t? I ask because #BlackLivesMatter has been criticized but the many killings of innocent black individuals haven’t been recognized.
Blessings,
An Educated, Civilized, Well Spoken, No criminal record, Tax Paying, Employed, Ambitious, BLACK millennial.
