We are Tired!
We are Fed Up!
Leave us Alone!
Stop Killing Us!
Even during a pandemic, you are still killing my people. STOP IT!
It’s been building up, and we simply cannot take it anymore. As a Black woman, an African who was born in America like the rest of us Black people, we are sick of this narrative. The narrative of an unarmed Black male getting murdered by a White police officer. For centuries, we had to tolerate it…but not anymore. We’re sick and tired of it. While everyone else get to tell their children about America being the land of opportunity and all that, we have to tell a different tale to our children. We have to tell a story of how we have to literally survive in a country that wasn’t made for us.
Even when our Ancestors were taken against their will from their homes of West and Central Africa to America, it wasn’t “land of the free” and “home of the brave” for my people. No, we were slaves. We went from being meaningful in the Motherland, to absolutely nothing in good ol’ America. We were property. And even when the war was fought, and slaves were considered “free”, that was when things took a turn for the worse. We tried minding our business, creating a community for ourselves, but it wasn’t enough. There was jealousy. So, throw in another narrative, hence the silent film “The Birth of a Nation” (not the one created by Nate Parker). And another narrative, Jim Crow. From there, it went from whipping my people senseless to dragging them out of their house and home, to get lynched. They celebrated about it. Took photos. Yes, this is the same America everyone glorifies about.
It kept building up, until the murder of Emmet Till made us go off. Not to mention Rosa Parks, when she got arrested because she didn’t want to move to the back of the bus. People came together to birth the Civil Rights. A nation divided, all because my people, who are descendants of our Ancestors that built this country, want equal rights. It’s only fair, right? But not to them…the ones who have pounded into generations that Whites are the superior and we’re the inferior. We wanted to change the narrative. They didn’t. So, while Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Huey P. Newton, along with the crowd that was drawn to them to speak out against the social injustice, all because we wanted to left alone, struck fear, to where those leaders in that age of time were murdered. They only picked up where Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. Bu Bois, Booker T. Washington and host of others left off.
It still wasn’t enough. Time went on, but the narrative stayed the same. When people saw white officers beat up Rodney King in 1991, LA burned. Because still, in a country that wasn’t made for us, they still find a way to degrade and dehumanize us. Now in the present time, we’re still dealing with this. In the year of 2020, my people are still catching hell, because of a country that was never fair to us. We are sick and tired.
Now we’re seeing the repetitive narrative of an unarmed Black getting killed by White officers. Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Freddy Gray, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Michael Brown…just to name a few, out of the ongoing list of my people getting killed!
So, another built up happens again.
We’re already dealing with the Coronavirus. Because of this, a lot of us are out of work. The cases are worse in spots where most areas are heavily populated with my people! Most of them have filed for unemployment, while wondering how they’re going to pay their bills. While others are probably essential workers, risking their lives, so they can keep their home afloat for their families. Then, we have to see Ahmed Aubrey getting HUNTED by two white men, which as WAY BACK IN FEBRUARY, and now getting coverage. Then Breonna Taylor! And now, George Floyd.
George Floyd was what made all of us explode. Just like Emmet Till back in the 1950s, which wasn’t too long ago, Floyd made us go off. We’re sick and tired. But now, you have white people who are tired of it too and speaking out. They’re speaking out about their privileges, and calling out other folks who are racists. People everywhere are sick of it. But my people, we are mentally exhausted, numb, pissed, and any other emotion you can think of. So, we’re back at it again, but this time, we’re angry, because for centuries, we’ve been witnessed to this ugliness. For centuries, we have been dealing with this, and we’re sick of it.
There are people who are afraid to have kids because of this. I have two daughters, in fear that they can’t enjoy life without anything happening to them or becoming a hashtag. My heart breaks for people I know personally who have sons and are terrified. I worry about the men in my life when they go out trying to mind their business, but are in fear that a cop may kill them. Any time I see a cop driving around, my stomach is in fucking knots. I know every black person feels the same way. Even when we comply, it’s not enough. Even when we comply, we’re still labeled suspect, or we “fit a description of a criminal” that they’re looking for. They consistently try to find any little thing to dehumanize us.
I will never understand why we are the most hated. Even so, I am still a proud African who was born in America. I love the skin that I’m in. I will even teach my daughters to love themselves, and be a proud black woman as time goes on. Even though I have the teach them the cold-hearted truth about this country’s history, I will also teach them powerful figures that shaped the history of our people and culture. I will teach them about their African roots, because it’s needed now more than ever. I feel like in some cases, our Ancestors have reincarnated in us to keep on fighting for the social injustice.
So as the protestors are continuing throughout the country in spite of COVID-19 still happening, I say, fight on, stay safe, because we are simply TIRED OF IT ALL.
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