THE LAND OF THE FREE
Home of the land of the free, but are we really free? The state of the black race in America is troubling, every day we are trying to stay alive, praying we don’t get killed while being black today. Black men and black boys are being judged on the color of their skin even though Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated in his famous I Have a Dream speech, that we should be judged by the content of our character. How did bird watching in central park and asking someone to follow park rules turn into a racist matter? When did dreaming and jogging, coming home after a long day of working as an EMT, and shopping in a convenience store all while black became a crime? How many 12
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AVID MAGAZINE
times do we have to say “I can’t breathe” for a change to happen? Year after year, month after month, state after state, city after city black people are fighting the same injustice.
“Home of the brave and free, free just to murder me,” lyrics from the T.I.’s song New National Anthem was relevant during the release in 2014 and still holds the same relevance in 2020. As a country, we refuse to deal with the issues at hand. When will enough be enough? We live in a society where we have to continuously remind ourselves, our family, and friends of the risk our black bodies constantly face daily. Why do we have to learn to adapt to a different rule every day for a biased justice sys-
tem? We put our hands up, we don’t resist arrest, we are not a threat but we are still murdered all because we are black. What do we tell our little black girls and little black boys? How are we supposed to handle being black and being stopped by a cop or white neighborhood watch members who can make citizens arrest? How many more Trayvon’s, Philando’s, Dominique’s, Eric’s, Michael’s, Alton’s, Sandra’s, Breonna’s, Freddie’s, Tamir’s, Ahmaud’s, George’s, have to leave this earth? To protect and ser ve is a joke. Every day we fear and dread any potential interaction with law enforcement, for fear that we might become the next tragic victims of an anodyne situation gone dead-
