I Will Not Be Silent
“If you, as a White person, would be happy to receive the same treatment that our Black citizens do in this society, please stand” Bernice King
Change has to happen.
The time for “wait and see; we’re investigating; we’re looking into it; thoughts & prayers” and other fake promises has passed. Year after year, the despicable disregard for the lives of black men & women continues with NO CHANGE.
WHY? Because these men & women are Black. Because the color of their skin triggers a sense of privilege, superiority, distrust, fear, anger.
Because BLACK LIVES DON’T MATTER — they’re expendable.
WRONG.
BLACK LIVES MATTER.
When you’re able to walk into any store without being followed or asked to leave because you don’t look like you can afford the goods; when you’re spat at; interrogated for being in the wrong neighborhood; when you’re refused service; when you’re called names; have a jingle made about your looks while riding the subway; when you’re lost and more afraid of getting pulled over by police because you don’t know what will happen; when you’re passed over for another incompetent douche just because he’s “one of the boys” and given less opportunity while white men of far less intelligence and imagination are consistently promoted & regurgitated despite their abysmal track record; when every day you leave your house, you are in fear of your life.
Can you White people share any similar experiences with me? how did it make you feel? how it shaped you? how despite it all, you still got up everyday, to do what you have to do, and try to live your life with hope for a better day?
I know how it feels, every minority can tell you how it feels.
Remember the American Revolution?
The American Revolution could have been avoided had Great Britain relaxed the economic restrictions it placed on the colonies, gave them greater representation in government and allowed them to share in more of the wealth the colonists helped produce. The colonists revolted only after years of appealing for change. Begging for it. They were pushed to it because they saw their lives and economic well-being suffering, restricted and in danger as a result of a gross imbalance of power.
When the system becomes too unbalanced and unchecked, a correction always happens.
That is it. Where there is unbalance, there is unrest. [The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek]
The systemic racism, discrimination, annihilation, oppression and degradation of Black men & women has to stop.
I will not be silent and I will not waiver. I stand in solidarity with my brothers & sisters and will fight alongside them everyday because we are a part of one another. We have a responsibility to each other, to help when another is in need, to be present for one another, and do the right thing. It starts with one.
#BLACK LIVES MATTER #ASIANS4BLACKLIVES
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends” ~ Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
