I’ve had this blog for a long time. When I revisit old posts I’m taken back to the point in time I felt inclined to get those feelings out. There’s one post I remembered writing recently that just felt really poignant to dig up and link to today. It’s a post I wrote five six years ago on Thanksgiving 2015. I wrote about being thankful for being black. I was working at Squarespace and it was the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement. Protests erupted around the country because George Zimmerman faced no consequences for his deadly actions and this movement amplified these devastating conversations about race in America. It feels like it was so long ago but also yesterday that I was in the streets yelling, Hands Up! Don’t Shoot! Probably because I echoed those same chants earlier this year in NYC. This time to defund the police.
Still Unsurprised, but Angry
We all braced ourselves for that inevitable verdict, but it didn’t make it any less frustrating. I literally let out a scream when I heard the accounts being read off and the jury’s decision of not guilty nonchalantly after each account. I watched in disgust as that little monster crumbled with relief that his actions would indeed not have any consequences.
He shot three people and killed two at a Black Lives Matter protest and nothing happened to him through the judicial system, setting an incredible scary precedent for the acceptable behavior that can now be cited in court from now on. He brought his gun across state lines and killed people. Beyond this being a slap in the face to justice, it must be devastating to the victims’ families that their loved ones died and a jury didn’t feel that Kyle should have been held responsible for them no longer being here.
Unsurprised
The pitfalls of this justice system have been nothing if not consistent when it comes to the ways in which it’s unevenly applied to black and brown people versus white people. Countless studies have been made outlining sentencing discrepancies for the same crimes amongst white people and people of color. The most recent egregious handling of the law is of course the case of Kyle Rittenhouse who became an infamous figure during the protests against police brutality. In the wake of the video depicting the death of an unarmed man at the literal hands of a police officer that shook the nation to its core, this kid decided to grab his gun and crossed state lines to “defend property” and be “a medic.” His unnecessary presence at a protest resulted in him KILLING TWO men and wounding a third.
A Flawed Society
How the pandemic has exposed our incredibly flawed society and made it abundantly clear that this shift in public thought is not in the least bit reflective in government leadership, is something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently. The disparities in our society and the disconnect of the people who represent us has catastrophic consequences that are impossible to ignore. Climate change, livable wages, access to health care, and the fundamental right to exist without constant questioning have weighed the most heavily on me and though I consider myself to be someone who is sympathetic to opposite opinions cannot wrap my head around how those things are debatable.
My Family In Imagery, pt. 2
I wanted to share just a few more photos I had but also circle back on the legacy of black people and how lucky I am to have these photographs and know as much history as I do. Slavery did a number on our people. Being able to trace my family back as far as I can is considerably remarkable considering how often documents were “lost” or intentionally destroyed or most realistically not kept at all when it comes to the lineage of black folks.