It makes me livid that I even have a chance to write this blog post. However, it does not surprise me and I don’t know if that is worse.
Yet another Black man has been killed, murdered, lynched. Another Black man has been the victim of a justice system that has never given a fuck about him in the first place. A victim of white supremacy and their need to assert their unlawful,undeserved dominance over Black bodies.
I could probably turn this into a 50 page dissertation with ease, and still feel like I have more to say. However, this is not a dissertation so I will try to keep my rage concise.
I am beyond tired of the way Black people are treated in America. I am tired of seeing the same incidents happening to the same people. I am tired of Black names becoming the next trending twitter topic. I am tired of seeing videos and photos with white police officers killing Black people. It is traumatic. The fact that our unjust deaths have to be seen on a mass scale in order for us to get some type of justice or belief is disgusting. That fact that we can’t just trust video footage can be used in the court of law to bring justice to our people is disgusting.
We as Black people can not: run, walk, eat, be in our own backyards, play with BB guns, shop in stores, be a student, eat skittles, wear a hood, get pulled over for a minor traffic violation, sell cigarettes, go to church, go to the park, ride trains, have a broken tail light, sleep, be in our own houses, or even breathe. WE CAN NOT BREATHE. Our very existence is seen as an act of violence. Our skin speaks before we do. We can not even exist in peace.
What is even more wild to me is that we tried to protest peacefully, yet it was not well received. Dr. King was called a radical and was told he needed to wait just a little longer for justice. Kapernick was seen as someone who was disrespecting the men and women fighting for our country, despite being advised by a former military person on how to protest. There have been a multitude of peaceful Black Lives Matter protests and they were not well received. We have tried peace. Now we are fed up. We deserved justice, equality, and equity a long time ago and America didn’t want to give it to us. America still doesn’t want to give it to us. While I don’t think destroying stuff is the best way to receive justice, how the hell else is anyone supposed to respond ? We have begged for years and have gone unheard.
Not surprisingly, I have seen a lack of empathy to why people are reacting the way that they are. So let me explain further, for 400 years, we have been fighting racism. We have watched our towns being burned, people wrongly accused of rape, gentrification, housing disparities, and assassinations of our political leaders by the government. We have been disregarded in work spaces, had stereotypes made up about us and then have people internalize them, wrongly arrested, enslaved, and been forced into segregated and poor schools. We are continuously mocked with black face,dealing with modern day lynchings, and being attacked with racial slurs. We were hunted by the KKK, been the token Black person in predominantly white spaces, watched people invalidate BLM with the All Lives Matter movement, been gaslighted by medical professionals, and faced cultural appropriation. The list could go on for forever honestly. Now imagine facing all of this and being told to be peaceful. Do you see the problem with that? We are tired.
It is beyond me that people are just now seeing our rage and standing with us because it should not have taken this long. But since some of you have decided to join this fight, the time to show up and be a true ally is now. If you have never stood with the oppressed, there is still time1. Remember to stand WITH us but let us lead the way.
P.S. I thought about adding footnotes to explain and prove that what I am saying is true but I have decided against it. If you don’t believe it now with the multitude of videos or a simple google search, then you just don’t want to be believe. You choose to remain ignorant. I am even more tired of defending my existence and trying to prove it is real.
With A Heavy Heart and Intention,
Tot
1.Rupi Kaur
