#WeMatterToo

Sandra Bland
Trayvon Martin
Philando Castile
Tamir Rice
Breonna Taylor
Dreasjon Reed
George Floyd

This is a brief piece of the ever growing list of African Americans who have died as a direct result of brutality from crooked police and civilians for violating the same law, living in America while black. Each day three or more people are killed by the police resulting in over 1,000 deaths a day. All of these horrific occurrences usually tend to lead to their deaths becoming a simple hashtag.

For instance, Eric Garner’s, who was choked to death for selling cigarettes, is now remembered by #ICANTBREATHE. Sandra Bland’s mysterious death after a routine traffic stop is summarized by #MurderedbyMisogynoir and one of the newest members of this extensive list, Ahmaud Arbery, whose death hit the media months after three evil individuals found it fit to shoot him and film the assault in broad daylight while he went for a run has been condensed to #IrunwithMaud.

As the aforementioned list grows longer, black rage begins to make itself more prominent. Marches and protests are spreading like wildfire across the country and we will not stop until we are heard. People are fed up with how many have gotten off basically scot-free after killing peoples sons and daughters with no reasonable cause. We have tried to be peaceful, we have tried to work around being seen as what the president of the U.S.A. labels us, thugs, but it just doesn’t seem to be working.

No matter how many degrees you have, how much of an outstanding citizen you are, if you are a good Negro or not, in the enemies eyes we are just black and there isn’t much to do about that. This leads us to question what can be done to incite some type of change in this “land of the free.”

Many have shown us options but each one seems to anger the enemy even more and anger is never a plausible answer. Kaepernick demonstrated that peace does not help. Flatbush Riots showed that violence was not the answer and Botham Jean showed us that staying at home and doing absolutely nothing is definitely not the answer. So what do we do?

Though there is not a clear answer to this question there are suggestions. We as African Americans should arm ourselves with knowledge of our judicial systems and use this knowledge to invade courtrooms, police stations, federal offices in a positive way by becoming the makers and enforcers of the law. By doing this we can try to ensure that there are more good cops out there, more good judges, more good people who want what is best for everyone.

By doing this we can guide the world into becoming one in which a black mother doesn’t have to worry if her children will make it to see another day while they are playing outside, where black men can watch birds without being harrassed and where people of all shades can live with the same freedom that others have the pleasure of enjoying.

Our lives matter just as much as the next persons and right now it’s just a matter of showing that to the world.