Love & Protest By: Melissa Henderson
The tip of the iceberg was the murder of George Floyd. The video circulated the internet less than 24 hours of Mr. Floyd’s death. “I can’t breath” were his last words. Those words were a call to the black community: Enough is enough. The #BlackLivesMatter movement was once again reignited, with new participants, millennials, GenZers, and allies from across the globe took to the streets and social media in solidarity. Some were having race relation conversations in private, some took to the streets to let out their anger. When we say, “we are tired,” that comes with over 400 years of our ancestors pain. My revolution was also getting louder. My brother’s racial profiling incident a few months ago in March made me angry. And as he made the headlines of many news sources from across the country, I read every article in utter disgust. How could the police be so cruel? The truth is, police brutality and violence are triggering to me. When Mr. Floyd’s death flooded my timeline, I could barely watch it, yet I was forced to see it. I was forced to be traumatized once again my people’s pain. Which reminded me of the subtle racism I was forced to also experience firsthand. My heartache every time I’d been judged from the color of my skin - from the white waiter passing the bill directly to a white colleague ( even though I was paying the bill) during a business lunch, to a white cop screaming at me to stay on my porch in the early 2000s because a dispute between teenagers had caused a scene that this white cop didn’t know how to handle. Of course, there are countless incidents where me and my friends have experienced racism abroad, these memories never die. In those moments though, I’d become so de-sensitized to it and have deleted them from my life. However, no matter how much we try to erase them, they keep coming back like a cold sore on your lip. “I remember that time when....” But we are tired. And when Black people are tired, it comes from a different level of grief. It took a pandemic, high unemployment rates, “Karen,” and few unique planetary alignments for the entire world to wake up and address the ugly truth about racism. It has plagued our community for far too long. But this “ideology” has fucked with the wrong generation. We want to be seen. We want to be heard. No more racist leaders. No more racist cops. No more racist school systems and public health programs. It’s time to re-write history by demanding compassion, respect, and reparations. 9
