In the recent noise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, I decided to take a seat and stay muted.

It seems that there is nothing I can say or do that won’t offend people.

Justice

"Justice is blind," they say. "Justice is impartial and objective," they say. Well, we all know that hasn’t been the case so many times throughout history. And it is very evident in the recent lac of justice demonstrated in the cases of police brutality by white police officers taking the lives of African American males during routine traffic violation pullovers and arrests.

Justice shouldn't be too much to ask for in a world where it is supposed to be the standard.

Police Brutality

The issue of white police officers abusing their power and taking the lives of African Americans around the country needs to stop. It’s an epidemic.

My Skin

My Voice

Damned Because I Did & When I Didn’t

At some point in history, there were always protesters who rallied for a cause and bystanders could support them in silence. But now, that standard has changed and it seems as if silence is symbolic of complacency. This time around I was active in voicing my opinions on social media and “black out” all of my profiles because I felt like one day of posting in solidarity with the BLM movement just wasn’t enough. So, I took a break and posted the black Canva graphics that you see below from June 2nd until June 7th. I thought this was a great idea and felt like I was using my platform to speak out about the injustices done to African Americans. And instead, I was met with even more grief because “influencers think that they can just post a black square and call it a day.” And so now, here I am writing this blog post at 3:00 AM.

Just because I wasn’t out marching at Union Square does not mean that I don’t care about the black lives that have been lost due to police brutality. It doesn’t mean that I don’t support BLM or its cause. It actually pains me greatly to see these types of videos surface the Internet. With the pandemic still on the rise, I don’t think it’s wise to be surrounding myself with large groups of people, and many of them who were not wearing masks at these protests, because I have a weakened immune system. I also know how violent these protests can get and I don’t want to put myself in harm’s way, or be the next black person to lose my life to police brutality.

So to sum it up, I started out “muted” and received a lot of negative feedback and then started voicing my opinions and got some more backlash. I just can’t win! And it’s probably because emotions are running very high these days and it’s just hard to say or do the right thing.