Black in America | Ahmaud Arbery | Reflections on Racism
Texts From A White Friend
On jogging while black.
My white friend sent me a text this morning:
“Who killed that guy I keep seeing all over social media? And why?”
It was like a gut punch. I couldn’t bring myself to respond; I didn’t have the strength to actually answer these questions.
Do you have any idea what’s going on in the world?
Do we even live in the same world? We don’t. I’m reminded of that now.
Everywhere I turn, I see Ahmaud Arbery. I see the video where he is murdered for jogging while black. I see the commentary and the #irunwithahmaud posts being shared in my social media newsfeeds. The video, and now the arrest, are a large part of the current news cycle. And it’s all being discussed in my ‘circle’.
My point is that it’s everywhere. And it should be everywhere. There should be uproar and upheaval.
To ask those questions is unfathomable to me.
To not know the answers is unfathomable to me.
