There are no winners in a situation like this. Unfortunately, that’s not the way some people see these things. There are always more opportunities to get ahead. There are always more profits to make. There is always more land to wrestle away. There is always, always, a scapegoat to blame. We’re absolutely, incredibly, extremely talented at making excuses. At fabricating explanations. When we really want something, rhyme and reason become clay at our hands — molded and twisted into any situation we desire it to fit. In the world in your head, everything makes sense. Unluckily for you, that’s not the world you or I live in. This isn’t a world of simply good and evil. Rarely are many things either one or the other. I’ve been called immature or idealistic for believing the world is full of good, yet misguided people. It’s been a heavy point of criticism — I believe too much in goodness or I trust too easily — and maybe in this world that’s weakness. I’ve come to know that we ne...
“Can we talk about something else? I want things to go back to normal.” We've heard people say this same thing vocally or implicitly, through their silence and inaction, through their posts of picturesque beach vacations amidst police brutality, not only in the past week, but the past few years. Normal. What is the word normal even supposed to mean? What does it mean to you? Comfort? Considerable convenience? Maybe complacency. Because the Normal I know is ignorant. This Normal is a follower. This Normal wants what’s easy. This Normal has behaved as it’s pleased for decades, reshaping and reforming itself after every movement, every valiant attempt at change. But Normal comes back every time— evolving into a smarter, stealthier version of injustice. And now it’s this Normal’s fault that too many young innocent black men have been killed. It’s this Normal’s fault that thousands have been wrongfully subjected to the amalgamation of humiliation, viole...
Let me just clarify something that’s weighed heavy on my mind. Our cause is not violence. It never has been, and it never will be about violence. To those who protest violent ends in the name of BLM, this is not an accurate representation of the movement. Black Lives Matter is not about retribution, or revenge. It pains me to see it portrayed as such on various media outlets. To say that individual protesters speak out for the entire movement is to tell a half-truth. Don’t even take my word for it — if you have questions, talk to others too. Hear their stories. It’s disappointing to see the overwhelming majority arguing about why they don’t support the cause, or why they don’t see the point in protesting. But, the media is extremely capable of misrepresenting stories to fit certain ends. We need to be aware of that. So, maybe the lack of support is due to a simple misunderstanding. Maybe it’s due to ignorance, prejudice, biases. But, what we need to realize...
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