Black Lives Matter
Think back to the hardest thing you've EVER done in your life. Maybe it was:
Interviewing for a job
Presenting your company or product
Asking your crush out on a date
Competing in a finale
Making the game winning shot
Asking for a raise
It's different for all of us. You probably prepared, so you don't feel nervous. Or maybe with all the preparation, you're pretty confident. You're sweating, you're anxious. Maybe you have so much energy from the adrenaline you want to pace around or maybe you want to take a breather and go outside. In my last job interview, my armpits were SWEATY, so I paced around outside in between sessions. Everyone has different strategies for this.
Let's say, when it's all said and done, you mess up… It's ok. It may take a while, but there's going to be another job, another date, another game… it doesn't matter. Tomorrow's another day.
Now, imagine if the hardest thing you had to do was convince someone you have a life worth living.
The person you have to convince isn't God, but a complete stranger. This stranger doesn't know anything about you except what you look like, and at any point in time they can choose to end your life. They don't have to, but they have the power to. You don't know this stranger's experience. All you know is that you need to behave in the best way possible… And if you do everything just right, you get to keep breathing.
Could you imagine if you had to hold your breath in anxious anticipation every day?
This is the reality of the Black community. They have to be the right way every single day in every single encounter in every single one of those categories. The right performance is different for every stranger they meet, so they get less chances to make mistakes. In some cases, that stranger that gets to determine their lives?
Yeah, that person might have already made a decision before letting that Black person speak. In fact, many Black people get murdered without saying why their life is worth living. But why should they have to?
I believe in the dignity of a human life
I support #BlackLivesMatter because I believe in the dignity of human life. Period. But every time a Black person is killed, we argue their value or detriment to society.
Was he a criminal?
Was she a professional?
Were drugs involved?
Did they do the right things?
Why do we do this? All of these questions are ways to justify someone's death and in many cases, murder. Someone shouldn't have to do the "right" things just to live. ALIVE is the default option. We should be asking, why the fuck were they murdered? Why did we fail them? How did we get here?
We give pedophiles in church and politics second chances because they "contribute" to society. We let billionaires be defined by their bank accounts, but punish people living in poverty by their use of food stamps. We let White people be defined by their best intentions, but let Black people be defined by our worst intentions.
If you're thinking you need to protect yourself against Black people because they might be on drugs or a criminal or whatever dumb shit… Check yourself. This is a problem that we made. Systemic racism has created a society where we don't treat Black lives with dignity. It applies to healthcare, education, jobs, everything. And I know people are gonna argue and justify this. Trip over yourselves because I don't give a fuck what you say about the numbers.
How could you have prevented it?
Think about every reason that a Black person's death has been justified. Then, ask yourself how YOU could have prevented it:
How can I prevent a Black person from turning to crime?
How do I prevent a Black person from falling out of the school system?
How do I prevent a Black person from being murdered in custody?
The answer should never be, I can't do anything. Because you can. You can vote for governments to increase taxes on billionaires so their money serves all communities. You can donate money to organizations that serve Black communities. You can vote to lessen police power. If you don't know a Black person, then ask yourself why you don't know a Black person? What needs to change so I can see more of them in the spaces I occupy?
Let’s start unraveling only some of the answers and excuses I’ve heard used to justify what’s been happening to the Black community for decades.
The answer to these questions isn't, it's their fault. Because it's not. People don't become criminals by choice. A criminal lifestyle is high risk, high reward, and high cost. This is a gamble people make when have no other choices. People don't fail out of school by choice. Of course people are going to fail if we allocate resources to school districts that are already succeeding. People won't try again because we look down on low-wage jobs or make it prohibitively expensive to skill up.
Well, they’re just like that. No. They aren’t. We perpetuate this system that enforces racist stereotypes and profiles. If you don't think Black people are protesting, you probably think they're rioting and looting. Guess what? That's your fault. You've let a system that tells EVERYONE IN THIS SOCIETY that things and stuff and property is more important than lives. So for opportunistic criminals taking advantage of peaceful protests, they either lose their lives to the system or death… Or come out with more stuff.
You don't like the protesting? That's your fault too. You placed the value of a flag or a sport over the value of a human life. You had the easy way with kneeling, but didn't like it until your stuff was in jeopardy. Black lives are in jeopardy every day. Because no matter how smart, how rich, how generous, how “good” a Black person is… You'll still be here trying to justify their murder or death. If your stuff is worth more than a human life, I GIVE you my pity.
Treat Black people dignity and respect
Many of us will never need to convince someone that our lives are worth living. That's a privilege. Many of us don't fear guns when we see them. Maybe we've handled them or maybe it's because we quietly know that they'll never be turned against us. For Black people, guns are a threat, regardless of who wields it. They know that they'll have to perform the right moves and the right steps to convince a stranger with a gun that their life is worth living. Yet, many don't have that chance.
Treating Black people with dignity and respect demands the same treatment and quality of choices that we expect for ourselves in every situation. In education, in opportunities, in healthcare, in jobs, in everything.
Basically, if it’s not good enough for you, then it’s NOT GOOD. PERIOD.
I know some privileged/superior/racist people are gonna say, well Black people should work harder. I worked hard and got here. They can too. And no, that's wrong. We should work harder. Giving Black people the same quality of choices available to the rest of us means there's “less” to share for the privileged. Good. You always say that if you want more you'll have to work harder. Fine. Make the same quality of opportunities available. When our society is more productive, there’s more to share with everyone. It’s that simple. Mad that I’m asking you to work harder? Well you probably worked hard to be this comfortable. You’re not lazy. You have the skills do it again. Pick yourself up by your bootstraps. I know you can.
What if they get more than me? I assure you they won't, because you've been stopping it for years. We're just trying to get to equal here. When wealth is shared amongst everyone, we can make more of it. Guess what? When we treat people with respect and actually provide good healthcare, and opportunities, and jobs, and everything, they won't want to loot your precious stuff.
America has never been great. We've been pretty good, but never great. Pretty good is actually our absolute worst, simply because we refuse to acknowledge and empower our fellow citizens: The Black community.
Listen to Black people and act on it. This is the time. What needs to be done so they have the same treatment as you and the same quality of choices as you?
All those commandments, and laws, and rules that you value don't matter if you don’t understand the gravity of killing and losing a human life. If we don't fight for the value and dignity of a Black person’s life, we will lose our humanity. That's a far greater thing to lose than any amount of property or wealth in the world.
It’s your turn to hold your breath in anxious in anticipation. I'm asking you to do something difficult. I’m going to fuck up. You're going to fuck up. We’re going to make mistakes and the Black community might be hard on us. They also might not be. Because no matter how much we fuck up and mess up, our lives aren’t on the line. Theirs are.
There are no excuses. Do what you can. Educate yourself. Speak up. Donate. Protest.
Black Lives Matter.