Oh boy... this may be the hardest one of these I ever had to write. For those of you who have been living under a rock, George Floyd was unjustly murdered by the police for the relatively minor crime of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. As this was the latest in a long line of injustices committed by police to the Africa-American community, it has since sparked massive riots involving looting and brutal violence from the very system that was supposed to protect them with video examples popping up all over Twitter at just how badly the American Government and the Police Department are handling this. And this thing is worldwide as there are protests in England with even black celebrities such as John Boyega of Star Wars fame getting involved and a social media/music blackout on Tuesday.
Now in case you couldn't tell, I am very white. I was very lucky growing up since I was never stopped by police nor did I face any violent attacks for who I was. The most prejudice I faced was being a social outcast at school because of my autism but that's honestly nothing compared to what millions of black people face every day. I'm also straight, cis-gendered and a man therefore I'm about as privileged as I can get.
So I'm probably the least qualified person to address this but honestly, how could I not? How could I stay silent? It doesn't matter what colour our skin is, we're all just people. We're all human beings. So if a fellow human being is unjustly attacked, of course we should stand up for them. As a Christian, we are taught to love and to help our fellow neighbour. There are no exceptions to this and if you think there are, there's the door.
And yet we need to be held accountable both for our actions and inactions. Like many people said, it's no longer enough to not be racist. We have to actively fight against racism in any way we can whether through protest, donating to a relevant cause, signing petitions or even raising awareness. Anything can help but we can't stay silent. You can take a break for the sake of your mental health if it gets too much but you can't stay silent. I'm no longer staying silent and I wish I did that a long time ago. I hope I and many others will continue to fight for the cause, even if this stops "trending" because we can't stay silent. Enough is enough, we can't condone this any longer because we are just people at the end of the day. It doesn't matter what colour we are, what our gender is, what are sexual preferences are or even if our mind and body works properly, we are all the same species and we are all living beings and we all need to look after each other.
And no, the UK isn't innocent in all this. Our standard for policing may be higher but People of Colour are still being disproportionally arrested compared to white people and we voted for a white supremacist and a system that dooms us all just because we as a country didn't want foreigners stealing our jobs. That's not to mention all the times in history we screwed over other countries to build an empire such as the slave trade and events such as the Partition of India (the latter of which is rarely being taught).
As a reminder, I will not tolerate this kind of behaviour, not from anyone. I never have. You can use any excuse you want. You can say #AllLivesMatter or 'Everyone's a little bit racist' all you want, it doesn't matter. At best, I will call you out on it and at worst, I will block you. And if you have any problems with that, there's the door. Because enough is enough. And I know I'm white and privileged but I can't stay silent. Not anymore. And neither should you.
#BlackLivesMatter
In lieu of the usual meme of the post, I will post a website that will show you all the ways you can help.
https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
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