Breathing while black in America
Is it possible for any black man, woman, or child to live without fear in America?
Black people have been singled out for abuse, injustice and murder for hundreds of years in this country and it’s still going on. The only difference is that today, everyone’s got a phone with a camera so the abuses, injustices and murders are caught and displayed for all to see. And we are seeing it, without fail, every single day.
Imagine being fearful at seeing a police cruiser in your rear-view window.
Imagine sending children off to school and wondering if that is the last time you’ll ever see them alive.
Imagine going through life knowing that your skin color makes you vulnerable to abuse, injustice and death.
I’m not black. The fact that millions of black Americans are forced to live daily in this kind of fear is a horror that none of us must tolerate anymore.
To the know-nothings who talk about “American Exceptionalism,” I say this. If we truly want to be an “exceptional” country, let’s drive a stake through the heart of American racism and bury it forever. And even as I say that, I know it’s still going to be around for the foreseeable future. How much longer?
A black teenage girl being brutalized in a classroom by a white thug in uniform? It must stop. How much longer?
A black drummer being killed because he had a flat tire? How much longer?
A black teen murdered for wearing a hoodie in the “wrong” neighborhood? How much longer?
The list is hundreds of years long. How much longer?
Breathing while black in America can lead to abuse, injustice, or death at any moment. How much longer?
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