Actually, for me, it was like a dozen guns...handcuffed at least 3 times, one time with the officers knee on my spine, but who's counting...this has got to stop...I could HAVE easily been another George Floyd during one of these past altercations...so I get it...I get the anger that so many of us feel but how does proving the worst things racist and bigots say about us, TRULY help? We want justice, so we decide to be unjust to those that are just trying to provide for their families and survive this difficult time in our human history. Is that how we honor those names that we scream in the streets? No, we are better than this! The other day I was at a dinner party and someone said something to me that I've heard a thousand times before, "You're the whitest black guy I've ever met". Why, because I don't say 'nigga' in every other sentence? Is it because I can hold a conversation, or that I use complete sentences?
Why is it that THESE attributes are associated WITH being white (but not black)?
How long are we going to allow the 'others' to control our narrative? How long are we going to allow them to dismiss our accomplishments by saying it's because he/she is mixed or part white? Yet at the same time exclude us from the equality that we deserve because we have one drop of black blood in our veins?
One of the wisest things that's ever been SAID (to me) is that 'we teach others how to treat US', and right now those that chose to loot and riot are telling those racists and bigots that they were right about us...
It isn't fair, it never has been, and unfortunately I doubt it will ever be. Being black in America means we can't make mistakes and hope that a judge or an officer will look past our skin color to see the person UNDERNEATH. We don't get the benefit of the doubt, which is why we can't keep perpetuating this stigma that we're nothing more than thugs.
That, given the opportunity, we will do nothing more than loot and destroy because that's not who we are...that's not who George Flyod, a loving father, was...it's not who Breonna Taylor, a proud EMT, was...it's not who Ahmaud Arbrey, a cherished son, was...we are better than this! So, for those that have fallen, I'm begging everyone, please don't allow your anger to cloud the message that we all know and say loud and proud...BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!