For some of you, your hearts are coming down to a baseline. The outrage you felt about what happened to George Floyd is cooling. For some of you, that is a relief. You’re quietly happy that you are not having to face the Black Lives Matter movement head on as much as you have in the recent weeks.
You’re relieved that your feed isn’t making you uncomfortable. Your anxiety levels are down and you’ve moved on. COVID, Memes and more are back to your feed and in a way, you are thankful to see COVID news.
For others… some days you just see something that brings the weight of the world down on you.
Today I watched a video taken on the Fourth of July. The day we celebrate our “Independence day”. Before I explain this video, I’m reminded of what our Declaration of independence says.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
This was written at a time when, while the words said “all men are created equal”… a lot of those men were not considered that. We were a commodity. We were cattle. We were the labored and broken backs that this country was built on.
And here we are. 244 years later. This video… showing a black man being accosted by 5 white men, opening threatening to lynch him.
This was not decades ago. This was July 4th.
Natasha was with our daughter at the grocery store when they spotted a row of approx 20-25 vehicles staged in the walmart parking lot. Their vehicles were decked out in Rebel & Trump 2020 Flags. They were armed. They drove out onto the highway and proceeded to go through town “Patrolling”, looking for “BLM Activity, as well as other minorities”. There were numerous reports of them accosting minorities or anyone that audibly mentioned Black Lives Matter. Jumping out of their vehicles yelling obscenities including racial slurs and calls for them to “go back to where they came from”.
This is still going on. This is still a fight. I’m tired of a new video seemingly weekly where racist, vile, angry people are filmed being absolutely horrible, despite the unrest from the black community and our allies asking for something that so many of my white friends enjoy without realizing it.
Freedom from fear that this behavior is still a regular occurrence and could happen to me simply for how I look. Freedom from fear that this behavior is still happening and it could be my daughter or my sons.
While you’re comfortable, knowing you can go to the store without a worry… I worry about needing to go to the store for groceries. You are glad that your timeline is not so much in your face about what is really happening to the BIPOC community, but my nerves are shot. While you’re relieved that you can go back to laughing at memes… I scan local news feeds for more information to determine going out or not.
What will it take for you to stand up if you haven’t already? Do I have to be filmed being accosted? Will me telling a story about someone threatening to stretch MY neck get your blood boiling enough? What will it take? I’m LEGIT asking what will it take? Will seeing a knee on my neck until I breath my last finally make you WAKE UP? What will it take for you to stand up for basic. human. decency?
None of the people in this video have been arrested at the time of me writing this. The Patrolling Caravan has not been questioned.
What the hell’s it gonna take? And this video below is hard to watch. And it should be hard to watch. NONE of us should have to experience this…
And None of us. ABSOLUTELY NONE OF US should stand for this.
