I CAN'T BREATHE
While I was working on my blog for suicide awareness and prevention
tips for mental health awareness month, an image began to trend, on May 26th,
the image of a police officer using excessive force on a black male. Typical
police brutality, I thought, at first I just saw the still video image, and
then I saw the caption with the words “I can’t breathe”. I immediately opened
the article to read what had happened and at that time the black male laying on
the ground wasn’t identified. I couldn’t bring myself to watch the video because
the ending of the article read the man had succumb to his injuries and died at
the hospital (Insert Tears).
Imagine waking up, doing your daily routine, going to work
or running errands, and during your day you have an encounter with a police
officer, that encounter turns brutal then deadly and you never make it back
home. Being stopped by the police can literally end your life in a matter of
minutes. To protect and serve? Or To protect and kill? I shouldn’t have to type this but #RIP George
Floyd, last week I did not know you existed, now your name is known all over
the world and unfortunately you are no longer with us. As tears stream down my
face, I think of my dad, my brothers, my nephews, my cousins, my uncles, my friends,
and their families, every black male and female in Amerikkka is a target for
the demonic forces of racism, brutality and white supremacy in every sector and
industry especially law enforcement.
IT’S NOT US IT’S YALL LISTEN TO OUR YOUTH!! I saw this young man interview on Diddy IG and I had to find it and add it. Our youth is watching us adults and even they can see the problem.
5 years ago in NYC Eric Garner on video was murdered by
police officers who choked him to death. His last words before he departed this
earth was “I can’t breathe”. It is like a nightmare or scary movie that you
know the ending shouldn’t go that way, but it does anyway. The ending of
fatherhood, children becoming fatherless, the ending of a marriage, the ending
of a mother and father son bond, the ending of a sibling relationship and
whatever ties one had to the community. In a matter of minutes a child lost
their father, a wife became a widow, a mother and father has to bury their
child, a brother or sister lost their sibling, and the community reacts by
protest, outcry and hashtags on social media. It is like a never ending cycle
that doesn’t appear to have an end. Will it have an end? It has been since the first slave ship docked
in 1619 that we have been losing our breath we haven’t been able to breathe
since we entered this land. Our ancestors couldn’t breathe, our grandparents,
parents, now us, next will be our children and then their children. I want to
have a son one day, but I don’t never want to bury him. I’m thinking about my
kids I haven’t even birthed yet. I’m thinking of the world they would be entering
and the target they would have on their backs just because they are black. Of
course we all have had our trials and tribulations, joys and successes, but
generation after generation we continue to experience all forms of racism in
every industry and sector and brutality from the thugs in blue, no matter how
long ago slavery was and no matter how much we have achieved or accomplished we
are still seen as less than.
A pandemic of COVID-19 was declared mid-March, and even
through social distancing, quarantine, black men and women are still being killed
by the hands of white supremacists, (Ahmad Arbery) and by the hands, of the police
(Breonna Taylor) and NOW (George Floyd). Body cameras, dash cams, community
meetings, advocacy meetings, policy, training, legislation, voting and we are
still getting killed by the police and white supremacists. What will it take
for us to not be killed by the police? Does being stopped by the police give
you anxiety? Does being stopped by your aggressive alleged concerned neighbor
make you have anxiety? That shouldn’t be the case but that is our reality, this
is our lives, if we aren’t experiencing it with police, we are experiencing it
where we work, or when we walk into a high end designer store and by our, I
mean BLACK PEOPLE. Who wants to live in fear and anxiety? Who wants to encounter
a police officer and fear your life ending? Do we have to social distance and
quarantine the rest of our lives just so we won’t have to ever encounter the
police? But Breonna Taylor was sleep in her bed, and the police busted in and
shot her apartment up. Lord how long?
I would like to acknowledge and give my deepest and
sincerest condolences to the families of Ahmad Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and
George Floyd. I am so sorry that their lives were cut short by the hands of
another and I am sorry you will never see, speak, hug or kiss them again, and
the grief and pain of having to relive and to re-see documented evidence of that
loss will only dig deeper, there will always be a piece of you missing but just
know that they didn’t leave you they just left here.
Black people are enraged and suffering from PTSD and trauma
from white supremacy forces, and racism from the people that are paid to protect and
serve. In my pervious blog “Free Your Mind”, I provided ways to access
therapy and provided resources to therapy and I will provide those again here
and you can reference my last blog “Free Your Mind” for more information.
Resources for online therapy.