We The People

My head is reeling after the events that have taken place over the past two weeks. The vicious murder of George Floyd on display for the world to see has incited an anger across the nation in a way that I have not witnessed in the twenty two years that I have been alive. It is devastating that another black life was senselessly taken because of the hatred in another man's heart. I am in tears as I write this because as a black person I recognize that it could have been any of my black friends or my black family. Hell, it could have been me.

But setting the trauma aside, something beautiful has come out of the tragedy. This recognition of injustice has spread like fire (literally) in the United States that has caused the murderers to be brought to justice. Great. Now what? I don't mean to be harsh but what are we going to do now?

I'll tell you what. We need to teach our children this story. That black power mixed with white support can make great waves. That there is power in their skin and in their blood. Power oozes out of a black person because of the resilience that has been passed down for generations. We should never let them forget that.

I am deeply saddened when I hear young children dote on the darkness of their skin, the hardness of their hair, the boldness of their features. As black men and women it is our responsibility to instill in the next generation that they are not weak or worse off because of their blackness. They are powerful because of it.

I will teach my children that the America they may learn about in the history books is an illusion, just like the one I learned. When the Constitution of the United States was signed, they did not have us in mind. But now we take back the meaning of “We the People”. We take it and we make it ours. If they don’t want to include us in their history, we’ll write it ourselves.