To whom it may concern,
If you’re reading this, this is a call to action. Enough is enough.
By now you must have heard of the Black Lives Matter movement, if you haven’t let me educate you.
It all started when an unarmed teenager named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman. The actual movement began soon after this when Zimmerman was exonerated, resulting in an uproar in the black community, prompting three black women to create the hashtag Black Lives Matter on Twitter eventually becoming the movement that we all know today.
The recent deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner by police officers spurred further unrest, and the Black Lives Matter movement mobilized into protests in Ferguson Missouri, and across the nation.
Now is not the time to turn a blind eye. We (the black community) need to know that we’re not alone in this. You have the power to do something. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, you can make a difference.
Although some people will try to call us terrorists for fighting back. Others will call us extremists for telling our truth, and some will call us crazy for trying to fix this broken system. We are none of those things. We’re, people, human beings, We’re Americans.
As a black women. No- as a dark skinned black women in America, my voice is never heard. That’s why I need your help.
I have an older brother, he goes to college in San Francisco. I worry about him. I worry if when he goes out with his friends it’ll be the last time. I worry that if he gets stopped by police I’ll never hear his voice again. I worry. I worry about my own father who doesn’t speak English well, and may say the wrong thing and end up becoming the next martyr.
It may be hard to understand my frustrations and fears, but understand that there is a problem.
other people will claim that racism is long gone and that “blue lives or all lives matter” but they say these things out of ignorance and privilege. Educate yourself. Don’t be complacent. Be smart.
As Atticus Finch once said, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
circa 2016
