This is not how I expected this blog to debut. Here we are, with more Black lives taken by police. We are still fighting for something that should be simple and basic: Black Lives Matter.
They do.
And I don’t want anyone to think for a second that I disagree with that. I don’t want to stay silent. Above all, I don’t want anyone to come to my blog and wonder what side I’m on.
Black Lives Matter
George Floyd’s life mattered.
George Floyd was a 46 year old Black man killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020. He was the father of two daughters. According to reports, a store employee suspected he paid for his cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill and called the police. Upon arriving on the scene, police officers pulled George Floyd from his car and handcuffed him. George Floyd was face-down and handcuffed on the ground while Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on his neck. Although George Floyd protested that he couldn’t breathe, the police refused to get off him. George Floyd was taken to the hospital by ambulance, where he later died.
There was no reason for a violent confrontation.
There is no reason to kneel on the neck of another human being.
George Floyd was unarmed, handcuffed, and face-down on the ground.
He is dead because, in the minds of the police officers who killed him, his life was worth less than $20.
George Floyd was Black, and the police know that authorities will protect them when they murder Black people.
Black Lives Matter.
I am white, so I can’t understand what the Black community goes through every day, from the countless microaggressions to fatal incidents with police that happened to George Floyd, to Breonna Taylor, to Philando Castile, and to countless others.
I am white. Because I am white, I have not felt the effects of our society of systematic racism every day of my life from the time I was born.
White privilege is that I can avert my eyes, shrug, and say that they must have deserved it because the police are always right. But I don’t believe that, and that is not who I want to be. That is privilege because I do not have to be part of the fight if I don’t want to be. It is privilege that I can ignore it. The Black community can’t ignore it. It is happening to them, whether they want it or not.
I am white, and I am not perfect. The media I consume is largely by white creators. I want to do better. I must do better.
Black lives matter to me. They should matter to you.
It’s my first time writing something like this. I don’t know if I said it right. Even if I didn’t, it needed to be said.
Where to Donate:
- The Black Lives Matter official site
- George Floyd Memorial Fund
- Minnesota Freedom Fund
- Black Visions Collective
- Reclaim the Block
- Black Immigrant Collective
- Campaign Zero
- Unicorn Riot
- The Bail Project
- Fair Fight
I found this post by JadedIsland to be very helpful. Maybe you will too!