Black and Living in America

These past few days have been hectic. From Toronto to Florida, people all over have been voicing their feelings. Many have had differing opinions on these protests. A lot of people are saying that these "riots aren't helping get the attention of law enforcement, but they are. Martin Luther King jr said riots are the voice of the unheard. We are unheard and we have been unheard for years. We peacefully protest and the police and media still find a way to put us in a bad light. If the protesters get to close they are punished with tear gas and rubber bullets. But when our white counterparts do these exact same things, even with guns they are praised for speaking out. Our own President Trump called black protesters and I quote "thugs" while he called people protesting for the opening of the country "good people". Now one group is protesting their right to live while the other is protesting for barber shops and nail salons to open up. One group is unarmed while...

Okay, so now that we have all of the basic stuff I want to talk about current situations. Let’s just start with police brutality. They are so many victims that I can’t even get them all on one post. I want to bring up ones with similar deaths. Let’s start with Eric Garner and George Floyd. Both were deprived of oxygen and died. Eric Garner was put in an illegal choke hold and George had someone kneeling on his neck. They both said the iconic line “I can’t breathe.” Now what kind of person would continue to deprive them air, after they said MULTIPLE times that they couldn’t breathe. Both men were killed by the same police officers who are supposed to protect us. The officer continued to kneel on George’s neck even after the had him cuffed. And his partner stood there and let it happen. Bystanders told the officers to stop. They even told the officers that he was unresponsive and the officer stayed on his neck. This officer that killed George was on his neck for almost 10 minutes. The of...

Now this topic hits home hard. They have normalized culture appropriation so much that people fail to realize that things they do everyday can be appropriating a culture. Lets start with the basics. Models dressing in the clothes of other cultures is cultural appropriation. Many believe that if, one pays the proper respects that it isn't seen as cultural appropriation but cultural appreciation. The thing is, if you wear something that belongs to another culture just because "it's cute", then in my eyes you are indeed appropriating a culture. And can we talk about the culture vultures in Hollywood. One household name is the Kardashians. these woman are notorious for making money off of black culture. Lets just talk about the braids for now. They wear the braids known as cornrows and rename them "boxer braids" and "Bo Derek braids". The fact that they get praised for these styles while our own black people get fired and suspended from school while we...

Lets just talk about black on black crime. So maybe I can prove that I'm not another angry black person. I would like to bring up the fact that the term isn't even helping the situation at all. The term is factually correct, but its simple and emotionally charged. The term is very misleading and it brings harmful stereotypes onto black people. It just says that all black men are basic thugs and murders. But few seem to realize that these murderers were created by the american system. It doesn't educate. It leaves very few jobs for them live off. The system over-polices and over-incarcerates. This is just everyday life in poor neighborhoods. But since I'm here to talk about the violence, that's what I'll do. From 1976 to 2005, 94 percent of recorded black crime victims were killed by other black Americans. The black victimization rate was 20.1 per 100,000. Its more than 3 times the Hispanic rate, which is 6.4. And its over 7 times the average white rate, 2.7. The...

A lot of people believe that they actually know how it started but they don't have all the facts. Yes, the Africans were taken from their land in Africa, but what people don't know is that the richer Africans sold them to the Europeans. They kidnapped them and took them to European boats to be taken to many different countries. The slaves taken were taken to many different North and South american countries. Now that we have this out the way lets go into the experience of being a slave in the United States. many people believe slaves were brought to this country as early as when Christopher Columbus came. The slaves were brought here on boats. They were chained together at the bottom of ships. Because of how close they were together and the diseases that traveled fast, many slaves died while chained together and the person next to the them would have to be chained to a corpse. There were occasions when they just threw their bodies overboard. Once they reached the coast of Ameri...