I need to say something though, as I begin writing, I'm not at all certain what it is. I'm tired. I'm fed up. I'm angry. I'm sad. Rioting is not the solution, though I'm at a loss for a better one. Clearly, working within the system is not working and 1/8

...people who feel they've nothing left to lose feel that they've nothing left to lose. When all other options have been exhausted, what are the desperate to do?
I'm gay. Someone told me to my face I am responsible for the fall of western civilization. You know what though? 2/8

...Push comes to shove, I can mask my gayness and take refuge behind my white skin. Don't talk to me about "respect" and "compliance" of any sort. I've said wildly inappropriate and inflammatory things to cops in a fit of rage without repercussion. 3/8

...I managed to talk a cop into putting his gun away to allay my fear. I talked a probation officer into sending me to rehab instead of prison after failing 3 piss tests for meth. I've gotten away with this behavior because when a cop looks at me, 4/8

...the one thing they know for certain is that I'm not a black male. My entire misspent youth is empirical evidence that white privilege is very real in our culture.
So I don't think rioting is effective but I am completely devoid of any other solution at present. 5/8

...What is someone supposed to do when the system turns a willfully deaf ear to the suffering, injustice, and oppression it causes? I can't even tell you I wouldn't do the same thing in that circumstance. What I do know is that every time something like this happens, 6/8

...be it officer involved, white vigilantes who think their skin color imparts authority, or Karen doesn't wanna leash her dog, I see the pain and the outrage and the sadness of my black friends as I scroll through social media and I weep for them. 7/8

Something is very broken in the land of the free and I for one am sick to death of it. #BlackLivesMatter #ICannotWithRacists #ICannotWithLukewarmAcceptance #OneVoice1 #OVInjustice 8/8