Okay. This is gonna be heavy for a bit but I gotta get real with all of y’all for a second.
Because I’m tired.
Tired of the riots. Tired of the negligence. Tired of the crying and injustices and hurt and ignorance and pain and death.
There’s a power imbalance here, is what we’re fighting against. And it seems that it’s always pinned from one end of the spectrum to the other. Cops and civilians. Poor and rich.
Whites against blacks.
And you know what, I get it, because you’re tired too. Tired of seeing your brothers and sisters whittled down to nothing but a name on a headline. Your past a script to rehearse for the cameras that broadcast, the eyes that watch.
I pray for it to go away. I beg for it to end. But it’s hard when you’re brought down to silence to allow the stronger voices to speak over you.
We hurt too you know, and I’m angry that there’s no response for the injustices made to those that stand in the middle.
Where’s the riots for Nicolas Chavez? A man gunned down on his knees as he sought for help while being surrounded by 70 officers? SEVENTY.
The outlash for Michael Ramos who was shot with a rifle as he drove away in a panic after having been hit with a beanbag, for sitting in his car?
Ariel Roman was shot in the abdomen and then in the back after being tased and sprayed. For moving between subway cars. Eric Rosalia was about to be subdued with a taser for storming out of his garage with a steak knife when a backup officer proceeded to fire three shots into him. Chauna Thompson walking away with a slap on the wrist for ordering her husband to tackle John Hernandez into a chokehold until he went braindead.
We have to work together, because we can only go so far for them to listen. We have to make them understand we do not appreciate them killing us, ALL of us, that stand in their way when all they have to dictate how much of a threat we pose is by the color of our skin or the constitution of our facial features. Racial inequality is spread throughout those who's skin tone is determined suspicious when contrasted against a paper bag.
I’m not taking away from Sha’Teina Grady El who was repeatedly punched in the face by an officer.
I’m still in disbelief that both Breonna Taylor and Botham Jean were gunned down in their own apartments.
I still hurt for Philando Castile. The injustices for George Floyd. The practical lynching of Ahmaud Arbery.
Alton Sterling.
Tamir Rice.
Eric Garner.
Michael Brown.
Trayvon.
They take one look at the protesting we do for Black Lives Matter and water it down to anarchist retaliation in search of senseless riots and a thirst for violence, pining it against one race.
Blacks.
That’s not what we’re doing. We’re yelling at the top of our lungs in a justice system that is drowning out our voices and we’re all hurting, we’re all tired.
But we need to make them understand we’re tired of them killing us ALL.
