Words cannot describe how devastating and tiring it is watching Black men and women be murdered on a daily basis.
In the past week, two Black men have been shot and killed by police officers, and their massacres were witnessed by those on social media.
On Wednesday, the video of Alton Sterling, 37, being murdered by Baton Rouge Police circulated on every relevant social media outlet, displayed for everyone to see. Less than 24 hours later, the video of Philando Castille, 32, surfaced showing the young African-American school nutrition services supervisor pulled over for a broken tail-light and shot four times by a police officer as Castille was reaching for his license and registration information. While his girlfriend and her daughter watched helplessly.
We hear about these kind of things happening all the time. The correlation between police brutality and race, specifically in reference to African-American men and women. Especially in the U.S. It seems that every week a Black life is lost to trigger happy police officers. It seems every week we mourn a Black child, father, mother, sister, brother, and we are swimming in this sea of tears that we refuse to drown in.
When will y’all stop killing us?
Police are meant to “protect and serve,” but does that only apply to those with white skin? Is my little brother’s life worth less because he is Black? Is mine?
It’s not just police that kill us, however.
This system kills us. One that is meant to keep the Black community enslaved, in more ways that surpasses physical chains and whips. A system made of judges and juries that refuses to hold these racist and murderous cops accountable for their irresponsible, and irreversible actions.
A system that sits idly while Black people are murdered in cold blood for minor things such as a broken taillight, and standing outside of a convenience store.
You #AllLivesMatter folks play a hand in the continuous murder of Black people because you refuse to acknowledge the racial injustices that suffocate the black community at the hands of those in blue. I don’t know how many times the concept and significance of the #BlackLivesMatter movement needs to be further explained. I am honestly getting sick and tired of even having to explain why my life matters, why I or my Black brothers and sisters don’t deserve to be murdered.
Saying #AllLivesMatter further erases the reality of structural violence, extrajudicial killing of Black people and deeply rooted racism prevalent in our day and age, and it demonstrates the obvious lack of value for Black lives.
You know who else?
All of those “good cops” who refuse to speak out and check their colleagues and fellow officers around the country when they know that their actions are unequivocally wrong. If 90 percent of cops are good, why does there seem to be little complaint from them when certain cops abuse their power?
White people who choose to turn to a blind eye to the racial, economic and social injustices that Black people face everyday kill us too. Those of you that demonize Black deaths by reducing these fathers, mothers, daughters, sisters, and brothers, into something less than human. Those of you that are so quick to ask “what about me?” on posts and conversations that are specific to Black lives that are lost at the hands of police officers.
I don’t think you all understanding that turning a blind eye to injustice helps in perpetuating it.
The media, one that accepts plastering a Black man’s face all over news station and social media outlets for murders he did not commit. Resulting in that innocent man and his family receiving multiple death threats, even having to go into hiding. A media that portrays Black people negatively, thus providing an inaccurate and hostile representation of Black men and women to Black children and other races.
Words cannot describe what it's like watching my father, brothers, uncles, friends, etc. go out into a society that wants to see them dead. That wants them weak.
Knowing that my little brother understands at such a young age that this is his reality as a Black boy. I don't want him watching Black men and women be murdered day in and out by those that are meant to protect him. Knowing that as much as I want to protect him from these things, I can't.
My heart and prayers go out to the family of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and the Black families that have had to experience this in the past, present, and future.
America will never be short of bullets for Black people.
How long will you continue to justify the murder of Black women, men and children?
