Say Their Names.

Living in America while Black has always been a struggle for centuries, dating back 400+ years. We are still fighting in 2020 and we are still tired.

One would think with all the historic effort over time, change would've come by now. By historic effort, I mean all that Martin Luther King & Corretta Scott King, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, Fannie Lou Hamer, James Baldwin, Whitney Young Jr., Angela Davis, Roy Wilkins, Mamie Till (Emmett Till's Mother), Hosea Williams, Dorothy Height, Ella Baker, Shirley Sherrod and Daisy Bates did to fight for Civil Rights and equality of African Americans from the 1930s to the 1960s.

30+ years of fighting just to exist in the same spaces and have the same access to opportunities as White America and it has been a long, hard, violent, unfair and racial fueled struggle.

Jump 70+ years later, Black people are still fighting against police brutality and racism.

In 2013, the Black Lives Matter Movement was created after the murder of a young Trayvon Martin in Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch person. In addition, LaQuan McDonald, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Oscar Grant, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Atatiana Jefferson and 20+ innocent Black men and women were killed due to traffic stops, unannounced police break-ins, racial profiling or while being held in police custody.

The murders of innocent black lives at the hands of regular white citizens, racists and cops seem to keep happening, at a monthly basis, like Black Lives mean nothing. Three of the most recent claimed lives include Ahmaud Arbery (Jogging in Georgia in February), Breonna Taylor (EMT, at her home in Louisville Kentucky in March) and George Floyd (A father who unknowingly purchased cigarettes with a fake $20 bill in May).

These 3 deaths, sent the world (Chicago, Canada, Tokyo, UK, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Arizona, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, Australia, New York etc), into a wide range of hurt, anger and sadness which launched nation wide protests and riots to demand that cops and vigilantes be held accountable to the law and to combat racial injustice. All 3 were taken away from this world, doing absolutely NOTHING WRONG or worth dying over. They were simply, existing while minding their own business.

This shared Facebook post says it all:

"We can’t go jogging (#AhmaudArbery).

We can’t relax in the comfort of our own homes (#BothemJean and #AtatianaJefferson).

We can't ask for help after being in a car crash (#JonathanFerrell and #RenishaMcBride).

We can't have a cellphone (#StephonClark).

We can't leave a party to get to safety (#JordanEdwards).

We can't play loud music (#JordanDavis).

We can’t sell CD's (#AltonSterling).

We can’t sleep (#AiyanaJones)

We can’t walk from the corner store (#MikeBrown).

We can’t play cops and robbers (#TamirRice).

We can’t go to church (#Charleston9).

We can’t walk home with Skittles (#TrayvonMartin).

We can’t hold a hair brush while leaving our own bachelor party (#SeanBell).

We can’t party on New Years (#OscarGrant).

We can’t get a normal traffic ticket (#SandraBland).

We can’t lawfully carry a weapon (#PhilandoCastile).

We can't break down on a public road with car problems (#CoreyJones).

We can’t shop at Walmart (#JohnCrawford) .

We can’t have a disabled vehicle (#TerrenceCrutcher).

We can’t read a book in our own car (#KeithScott).

We can’t be a 10yr old walking with our grandfather (#CliffordGlover).

We can’t decorate for a party (#ClaudeReese).

We can’t ask a cop a question (#RandyEvans).

We can’t cash our check in peace (#YvonneSmallwood).

We can’t take out our wallet (#AmadouDiallo).

We can’t run (#WalterScott).

We can’t breathe (#EricGarner).

We can’t live (#FreddieGray).

We’re tired.

Tired of making hashtags.

Tired of trying to convince you that our #BlackLivesMatter too.

Tired of dying.

Tired.

Tired.

Tired.

So very tired."

This is stating Black children or adults can't simply exist, be left alone, do anything normal or relax at home without being shot and killed based off false accusations, racial profiling and without being handled with unnecessary excessive force by White people or cops that don't handle white people the same way.

Photo shared on Instagram.

The Black community is TIRED, EXHAUSTED, and ANGRY that our voices aren't being heard and our feelings aren't being taken seriously. The law hasn't been on our side or for us... ever.

Our people keep dying and their deaths are swept under rug until footage is released or circulated on social media. We're finding out about these murders months later and the cops or vigilantes are walking free or still on the job, getting just a slap on wrist. If the roles were reversed there'd be no way in hell a Black person would be allowed the same advantage.

White America has always treated Black America and People of Color as if we are beneath them. The laws aren't upheld the same way. The quality of life isn't cared about the same way. The color of our skin isn't looked at the same way. Our lives aren't handled the same way.

Black lives are met with excessive force, violence, brutality, fear, racial stereotypes and slurs, discrimination, hate, disrespect and so much more. What has changed? What has gotten better? Not much. Racism, racial injustices, racial inequality, discrimination, you name it, has only evolved.

Protests and riots have stressed time after time that the world will not rest until justice is served and until Black voices are heard loud and clear.

We as a community are tired of losing our black children, fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers to police brutality at the hands of white people in positions of power and privilege and always having to explain to the world that our lives matter.