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Y'know whenever a black man is killed by police for no reason I always get extremely existential. Like, will my life ever amount to anything if I'm killed tomorrow and will only be remembered as a hashtag movement in a long list of police brutality victims? What then?
This feeling of existential dread is why so many people are outraged: it's empathy. However, the lack of this feeling is found so often in defenses of the cops and the systems that hold it in place.
I see myself in every single black victim to police brutality. I am often perplexed by whether or not I will just be the next one. But not in an obsessive way, but just matter-of-fact-ly. Like "oh! Wonder if getting pulled over will kill me today." And thoughts of that nature.
All clearly display how horrible the world is, sure. But that empathy for the victims and existential fear my life will literally just be a news story for a cop to be fired and rehired is terrifying. But, living with that is just part of being black in America.
Onto those who lack this feeling. It is almost literally impossible to convey this feeling to those who cannot even imagine themselves in the victims' place. Like, even if race was not a factor, people genuinely cannot fathom a cop ever taking their humanity away.
And it always makes conversations about this hard. Anyone with a shred of empathy and understanding can see how police brutality can destroy the morale of black people everywhere, even when not directly, physically affected. Yet, w/o that empathy, it seems stupid.
"Why are you upset? It was one dude! You're nothing like him! If you're a good person, you got nothing to worry about! There's a reason the cop did that! You have nothing to fear!"
These statements will always rise in people who find it impossible to think they could be the same
These statements will always rise in people who find it impossible to think they could be the same
And from that viewpoint, it seems dumb, childish even, to think every ""one-off"" police killing is a big issue. It must be that I (and millions of other black Americans) are just overreacting. We're too emotional. Cause WE aren't the man killed. OUR lives matter. Theirs didn't.
Hence why conversations halt: our empathy allows us to see OUR life and the victims' lives are one in the same. An attack on them is an attack on us. Yet those without that empathy, their lives are above the victims'. They "would never" deal with that, so worrying is overreacting
But, newsflash a-holes who identified with the no-empathy people. Even if you don't care, this still affects the entire black community. Hell, it paces the way for the police to attack you going forwards. Saying #BlackLivesMatter 
today ensures all lives will matter tomorrow.
today ensures all lives will matter tomorrow.
(So, if you still have no empathy for the black people being slaughtered, stand up for them for yourself at least. Cause these killings are unjustifiable. They're wrong. And stuff needs to be done to make sure this doesnt happen to anyone else).
But back to me now, even as I write this, I wonder and think if this thread'll resurface if I am killed unjustly. What will people say about it? Is this a prophecy? How will me acknowledging this be received?
The idea of dying prematurely is truly cemented in black identity and American culture at this point. It is disgusting. And we must fight it on every front possible. A chain is as strong as the weakest link, right? No life matters until #BlackLivesMatter .
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