There is so much going on right now. It’s one of those moments in history that you can either choose to stand on the sideline and do nothing or do whatever you can to help the cause of justice and humanity. When Trump was elected, it was almost blindingly obvious what was going to happen. Every worst possible outcome has happened and it’s not an accident. This is all a result of either intentional policy or gross misconduct. COVID, the economy, and the protests are intricately linked together.
The murder of George Floyd may have precipitated the current protests that are flooding across the entire nation but this is years and generations in the making. I figured out what’s made me so angry and sick about all of it, too. This has been going on for the last 150 years in this form and hundreds of years before that. Black Americans have been living this nightmare for essentially an eternity. They’ve been shouting at the top of their lungs it’s been happening. And for my part, while I believed them, what have I done about it? Nothing.
We have all been party to hundreds of years of discrimination, killing, and slavery whether intentionally or through inaction. When something is happening in your own house and you do nothing to stop it, you are giving your tacit permission for it to continue. And I hope that’s ending.
The great thing about the ubiquity of everyone having a camera is that for the past decade we’ve seen a light being shined on everything that’s been happening. I feel like, for me, there was a real shift after the murder of Trayvon Martin and every killing since then has only amplified it more and more. And let’s call them what they are: lynchings.
And finally, Americans are perhaps showing what they’re really made of. There is no doubt that there is a strong thread of racism alive and well in this country. But people are showing up day after day and night after night to protests in every single state of the union. Even after peaceful protests consistently have been met by violent police force, people still show up. The insanity of the police continuing their violence, even after it’s recorded again and again is unbelievable.
I have not been to a protest but I am still doing what I feel I can do and donating to organizations which are supporting the protests and doing other important work on reform to our justice system (one of many reforms we have to make) Some I can recommend:
Don’t stand on the sideline. Real change is only going to happen if we make it happen.