This has been going on longer than I have been alive. And we keep going through this cycle. Until we truly address racism and oppression and corruption and how the African-American community has been and is treated, we will continue to go through it.

Peaceful protests are ignored over and over. Anger boils over and here we are. I don’t have to agree with the violence and destruction, but I can understand it. I also see all the reports of white people starting a lot of violence and destruction.

Ahmaud Arbery was killed while jogging. His killers were not arrested because they had connections to police and district attorneys. It wasn’t until video footage came out that arrests were made.

Breonna Taylor killed in her home on a suspicious warrant. Chris Cooper had a white woman threaten to call the cops on him because he told her to put her dog on a leash. George Floyd killed in camera over $20. These are just the ones we hear about in 2020.

have been threatened with arrest by police when they were told I wasn’t who they were looking for. I have been hit by a police officer for crossing a parade route. I have been harassed by police because their chief didn’t like something I wrote.

I have talked back to multiple police. The only thing I had to worry about was an arrest or a being hurt. Yet, I am petrified if my son’s best friend, an African-American male, walks over and what might happen to him if someone stops him.

We have problems in our country with racism and corruption and oppression. Either we start to address them seriously, or we will continue to come back to this point.