Having Black Skin In America is Dangerous

Having Black Skin In America Is Dangerous

Having black skin in America is one the most stressful and taxing things there is, in fact it’s dangerous. African Americans are not given respect or protection. The brutalities of slavery have followed black people generation after generation. Many people aren’t aware that “policing” started as slave patrols chasing down runaway slaves and stopping slave revolts. African Americans have been targets by the police since the beginning. In black households there’s a common theme: avoid the police at all costs. Even if you’re not doing anything wrong, steer clear.

Growing up black there’s a realization that black people and white people live in a different world from one another.

We are slapped with the harsh reality that white folks don’t understand we live in 2 Americas. In middle-school I was always called into the principals office for “having my shirt untucked and sagging my pants.” I was told to stop being a thug and carry myself respectable. My white homies did the same thing except no one batted an eye because they were “skater kids.” My white friends could never understand my frustrations with the “dress code.” It’s always foreign to white privileged people why black people are singled out, but WE always know.

Doing daily activities like driving to the store can be extremely stressful and can cause anxiety attacks for some black people.

On every social-media platform there’s another black person getting killed by the police in a some how “frequent freak accident.” A routine traffic stop, playing in the park, selling cigarettes, Or maybe they enter your home at night while you’re sleeping after you just got done working a shift during the pandemic and fire shots into your home killing you.

As a kid I would try and believe that there were good officers out there, but in my growth and experiences with police I’ve learned there are no “good” cops when you’re a black man. Cops are in a “brotherhood” and the “good ones” are too scared to hold the racist cops accountable for fear of being ostracized. Doing that they let the cycle of bad policing continue, and the hate for them grows.

 This week has shown me is that until white America believes Black Lives Matter, black lives will continue to die in front of our phone screens. Black men, black women and black children are all at risk of being a hashtag. There needs to be a shift in the tide. Our black skin is not a weapon. We as black people cannot afford to keep being hunted in the country we built.

#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

If you would like to help get the officers involved in the killing of George Floyd charged with murder please call:

Internal Affairs Division

City Hall, room 112

350 South 5th Street Minneapolis MN 55415

(612) 673-3074

Department of Civil Rights

City Hall, Room 239

350 South 5th Street Minneapolis MN 55415

(612) 673-3012

You can also sign this petition to support George Floyd here

Khalyl Gabriel | IG @khalylgabriel | Twitter @khalylgabriel95