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Just to give you a glimpse of what being Black is like, when I got home last night from covering a soccer game, my Pops asked where the game was. I told him it was in Crown Point — the same Crown Point that went viral for all of the wrong reasons when George Floyd was murdered. https://twitter.com/romeovillekid/status/1298720025721761792
He then looked at me, and I could SEE the sadness in his eyes. Deep sadness and FEAR. My Pops hugged me and told me he prays for me constantly. Praying I walk through the door at night because he knows (and I know) what some white people will do to me if they have the chance.
We started talking about Jacob Blake and how that STILL happened even after the outrage that followed the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. And my pops goes on a tangent about how he doesn’t want me to be next.
Me, him and my mama just stood there for a minute in silence. Like what are we even supposed to say? “Everything will be alright”? We don’t know that. But I said it anyways just to break the tension. Just to give myself and my family some hope.
But I can’t lie. I think about dying EVERY DAY, and how countless Black people are subjected to live like this. I’m 24. I’m supposed to have all of these dreams, and while I still do, I think about how all of them could be gone in an instant just because of my skin color.
And as much as I want to escape the weight of everything that’s going, I can’t. Because I always think, “If it was me, I know I’d want people to go hard for me.” So I don’t care if you’re inconvenienced by the Bucks boycotting. I don’t care if you think it’s stupid.
At the end of the day, you can’t just love Black people when it’s easy or convenient. That’s NOT love, and that will not bring about tangible change.
Stand up for us when it TRULY matters, and if still can’t bring yourself to do so, then you‘ve already shown who you really are.
Stand up for us when it TRULY matters, and if still can’t bring yourself to do so, then you‘ve already shown who you really are.
And one last thing, I used to be afraid of speaking up, thinking it would jeopardize my future. But honestly — and I’m 100% serious when I say this — I feel like I need to have my words and thoughts record. Just in case the day comes when someone decides my life doesn’t matter.
