"Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends,
than that good men should look on and do nothing."
John Stuart Mill
I do not condone violent protests. I think that they take the focus away from the situation at hand and give fuel to people who want to criminalize the protesters.
That being said... I understand it.
I understand why the frustration has built up to the point of violent protests.
I understand why the anger has built up to the point that it boils over in this form.
I do not condone but I understand.
Our African American community has been trying to speak out against continued oppression for decades and we have ignored them.
They've written songs about it but we didn't listen, they made sit-com episodes about it and we took as a joke. They've tried to build diversity groups in our workplaces and we took it as another requirement to sit through and then go on with our lives.
I say "we" because I did the same thing. I grew up listening to Christian Hip-Hop but skipped over songs like "Tears of a Black Man" by Gospel Gangstaz. My favorite show has always been "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" but I never really listened to the message portrayed in the episode where Will and Carlton were arrested and accused of being car thieves just because they were driving a fancy car. Both of these examples were peaceful attempts to get the message across almost 30 years ago and we never listened.
Recently, the media has finally been picking up these real life events of unjust killings and we made it into a political issue. We made it into an either/or issue with the African American community pitted against the cops. Despite their being unarmed, the victims were consistently criminalized and the perpetrators were let off with a "slap on the wrist" at most.
Each time the African American community cried out against the injustice and the majority of white America ignored them. Those who didn't criminalize them, remained silent.
In the last month, three innocent African Americans have been killed largely due to racial profiling and prejudice.
Ahmaud Arbery was killed by the son of a former police officer while going on a run,
Breonna Taylor was sleeping when police performed a raid on the wrong house and killed her in her own home,
and George Floyd was killed by an officer's knee while trying to tell him that he couldn't breathe.
This is not even mentioning the incident with Christian Cooper.
These are the ones that have been caught on video or shared in the media, but how many more are happening?
It is time to stop being silent. It is time for us to speak up against the injustice that is happening towards our African American brothers and sisters.
This is not a political issue, it is a life issue.