Photo Courtesy of Jamie Germano – @jgermano1
What we have going on today is not fair. From the year 1619 to the year 2020, people of color have been treated wrongly and robbed of their rights and robbed of their voices. “Don’t refuse” is what they said, “keep your hands up high” is what they said, “answer their questions” is what they said, “don’t reach in your pocket” is what they said. And still, we have colored people being murdered or abused or taken to jail over the color of their skin. George Floyd was killed by a white cop who told him to get down and he never refused not once, and yet still the cop put his knee on George’s neck making it to where he could not breathe and died and there were four other cops who stood there and watched. They said nothing, not helping or saying anything, watching the life go out of his eyes.
Another African American who was killed because of the color of his skin is Ahmaud Arbery. While jogging, Ahmaud was shot and killed by white people. Yet again another black man who was killed by more than one person. The man who killed Ahmaud supposedly thought that he was robbing a house under construction. If he were robbing the house why would he be wearing a t-shirt and shorts with no mask? After running until Ahmaud could not run anymore, he decided to fight for his last moments of his life and got shot three times with a shotgun. And, as if that couldn’t get any worse one of the men said a racial slur while Ahmaud was laying on the ground.
As if two couldn’t be enough, we have another black man who was shot and killed because of the color of his skin. Trayvon Martin was walking home from the corner store and got shot. He was shot because “he looked suspicious.” Wearing a hooded t-shirt makes a black man look suspicious, but, if the roles were switched and the races were turned, a white man was walking home in a hooded shirt the murderer of Trayvon Martin would have asked questions instead of shooting first.
Here we have a black woman who was shot. The door to her apartment was knocked down and walking in were the police who shot Breonna Taylor several times, not even giving her a chance to look at the warrant or plead her case. Months after her death, there were charges for murder, but no one went to jail for it. Breonna’s house was raided because they thought she had drugs, that people were selling drugs outside of her house, that drugs were being delivered to her house through packages. Even though she didn’t have anything to do with that she was still shot and killed.
All of these people that I have named were innocent black people who were shot and killed because of their race. If we keep talking and if we keep the message alive our voices will be heard. We will not be silenced. We will get our Justice for those who didn’t get it at a time that they needed it the most.
Sources – cnn, cbs,