This is America.
As a teenager, I should only have to worry about my grades, if my crush likes me back, how did I do on that last test? Did I lose my phone somewhere?
As a black teenager, I worry constantly about not upsetting the wrong people. Am I being too loud? Is that cop staring at me for too long? Did I do something wrong? Am I gonna he accused of a crime I didn’t commit but still considered a suspect for because ‘I matched the description’ when in reality the only thing me and the culprit have in common is skin color? Am I acting too suspicious? Am I acting too weird? Oh god, am I gonna be arrested?
Am I going to be next?
All lives matter should not even be spoken until the lives of people of color do matter. Murder is murder and will always be murder. No matter who stabs who, who shot who, or who beat who to death.
Let their names be spoken.
George Floyd
Trayvon Martin
Breonna Taylor
Ahmaud Arbery
Tamir Rice
Oscar Grant
Eric Garner
Philando Castile
Samuel Dubose
Sandra Bland
Walter Scott
Terrence Crutcher
The list goes on.
I don’t want to be next.
Black Lives Matter.
