we shouldnt be here we should not have to be here we shouldnt need protests and signs and marches and videos to convince everyone not to kill people for their race i shouldnt be marching down main street with half the town to tell the world black lives matter it shouldnt be an issue and yes all lives matter but not all lives are at risk because of their skin color
george floyd, eric garner, breonna taylor, tamir rice, trayvon martin, philando castle, anthony hill, oscar grant, atatiana jefferson, and yvette smith these are just some names of poc whove been killed and still dont have justice
if you cant donate or protest or things like that you can sign petitions and sent letters to people in the government if you text RESIST to resistbot at 50409 and click the link you can see the codes to text for resources and such this pandemic has been horrible and the death toll is astonishing for such a so called great nation but it has given people the time to protest without losing jobs and thats great
there were so many people marching that if i looked in front or behind me thats all id see, people marching with signs with chants it was amazing there were at least two chants going at all times in the front and back and it was truely powerful when the entire group was chanting the same thing and some of my favorite signs were things like "we are 400 years overdue" "this didnt start with george floyd, do you remember emmitt till" "no justice no peace" "all lives dont matter until black lives matter" "dark skin is not a crime" "white silence = violence" and a little girl (maybe 6 or 7) holding a neon green sign that read "racism sucks"
there was a mic set up and some speakers (one being a state rep) one said prayers and there was a breathing exercise and one read out george floyds words as we all kneeled or sat in the street and on the sidewalks and i cried, the black lady next to me cried, the lady reciting all his words sounded like she was crying and that was the hardest part, those 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence and kneeling from the crowd as this woman repeated "i cant breathe" "just get off me" "it hurts" "youre killing me" "mama"
thats what i posted on my ig and i ran out of room so im continuing here with the fact that ive seen various vidoes and photos of george floyd and other victims but mostly in one minute clips from buzzfeed news or now this news and they have their impact but being at the protest and reading those signs and hearing all the voices was something else entirely just marching made me want to cry but those 8 minutes and 46 seconds those are what hit the hardest i did a quick picture on ig bc i was running out of characters so ill try again yea theres this parking lot off main street for an office building or smth and the mic stuff was set up there that parking lot was full and people were spilling out onto the street and more there were so many people and all of us were silence as we knelt or sat on the ground as that woman spoke and those five quotes above were the ones repeated most often i couldnt see her very well but i could hear her voice breaking and i could feel my own hot breathe under the mask and i could see the people around me crying and it was very hard to deal with and there was a wave of people kneeling when she first started and it was on asphalt and concrete so some people sat down and others kneeled only on one knee and people shifted inbetween and i knelt on both knees the entire time and it got uncomfortable and it hurt but my 100lb self on my teenage knees for 8 minutes and 46 seconds isnt even close to that officers weight on george floyds neck for as long
