I started this piece in May, after the overturning of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court. Shortly after I started this piece, a 16 year old girl named Juliana Nzita was found hanging from a tree. After that, a Black families beloved pet dog was killed by police while responding to a noise complaint. After that, one year old Kohen Wiley was shot and killed by police after his mother shoplifted a box of diapers. Then on Juneteenth, a Black woman named Tonea Miller was found hanging in a tree. This is not mentioning the countless other Black people that have been killed or disappeared in this country in the 4 weeks I worked on this piece, this is not mentioning the countless human beings who have lost their lives due to racism before I started this piece, this isn't mentioning the Black Americans whose deaths were not reported or did not make the news or the timeline. My grandparents were teenagers when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were both passed, not even a full generation has passed since men like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Fred Hampton were assassinated and murdered for daring to call for an end to segregation and systematic racism. It's not enough to just accept the horrors, there is something that every one of us can do to help, because Black people deserve to grow old safely.
