The Color of Injustice

“MAMA! … MAMA!” George Floyd screamed as he laid on the floor helpless with a police officer’s knee pinned down on his neck. For 5 minutes and 58 seconds, we see a video retelling the narrative of George’s final moments.

“I can’t breathe… please… I can’t breathe… please… my neck hurts, my stomach hurts, everything hurts…” With emotional anguish and grief, I watch him… breathe his last breath.

Our human response when seeing people clinging to life should be to render aid. Without utilizing the clutch of the race card, I say this… we are HUMAN! Whether we are hooked on drugs, hustling, whether we live in an impoverished zone, whether we are illiterate and uneducated, black or white, immigrants or indigenous, even if we are classified as criminals, we continue to exist as HUMANS and should be treated as such.

One of the findings that really traumatized me was seeing the bystanders witnessing the unnecessary measures taken by the officers, and calling out George’s frail state. They pleaded for the officers to stop but the officers remained apathetic. I would have accepted that the distress could have clouded the officers’ judgment but when the civilians let it be known, they chose to ignore a cry for help and that’s unsettling! That’s cruel! That’s traumatic! Alas, we’ve been here before. This video exhumes the wounds and distress from 2014’s incident, where Eric Garner begged to live, begged to breathe; a basic human necessity. “I can’t breathe!” he said. 6 years later and the narrative has not changed, just the victim.

We need to advocate for change, not to just defend black people or to raise awareness that #BlackLivesMatter. We need to defend PEOPLE who are innocent. We need to defend ANYONE who is being mistreated. To form a nation with liberty and justice for all, it is necessary to be a people who are color-blind. We have to lock up the guilty and free the innocent. Prejudiced justice is no justice at all. A corrupted system is not a system that is ethical or dependable.

And then, there was…

“I’m going to tell them there’s an African-American man threatening my life.” This video created an outrage in our community because of Amy Cooper, a white woman who called the cops on Christian to falsely accuse him of endangering her and her dog at Central Park. What hurts the most is that she weaponized the color of his skin. Why does the COLOR of his skin MATTER? Has danger become a matter of color? What would have happened to this man if he didn’t have the video to voice his innocence? Could he have become another #GeorgeFloyd? Someone captioned the video, “She knows the system and how it works, so she called.” Is this true? Has color been the determining factor for the level or severity of danger? CODE BLACK??? Is this what our society has turned into? A system where the color of my skin can be a stimuli that evokes fear in the lives of white people? No color should equate to danger. The only color that matters is RED. That’s the color that flows through both black and white people’s veins.

In solidarity, we stand with George Floyd’s family as they mourn the lost of their son, brother, cousin, and friend. We hope to see Justice be served. Our hearts go out to the 4 police officer’s families, as they too are victims who are being affected by the officer’s poor judgment and actions.

We express our solidarity with Christian Cooper who has been emotionally and mentally wounded for being black. We hope to change the narrative for all African Americans. We also stand for Amy Cooper. May we not mistreat her as she is now facing the death threats and vitriol. May we remember to be JUST to her and teach her how to love.

May we stand together united,

“ One nation under God,
Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”