Why is it that when marginalize people—African American people—mobilize in protest, we’re considered dangerous, a threat, disorderly, vicious and menacing? And why is it that when marginalized people—African American people—bring this to the public’s attention, white men demean us on our own facebook pages, call us
divisive, race-baiters and reverse-racists?
I live in a parallel society where I cannot fathom a Black man standing at a state capitol, fully armored as if for war, while brandishing semi-automatic weapons (in many cases without a permit) and not be seen as a threat, hence arrested, or worse!
People often ask me, “Alex, what does your community want?”
READ: The Cross and the Lynching Tree: A Requiem for Ahmaud Arbery
It’s not that difficult.
We want justice, and not just for ourselves.
We want justice for all!
We just want our constitutional rights also.
White men can show up on state property looking menacing and then sleep in their own beds that night. But Ahmaud Arbery can’t go jogging without getting shot to death, because he was deemed a threat-for defending his own life. He didn’t make it to his own bed that night. I live 866 miles away from where Arbery was shot, and it has caused me fear. If we don’t want two Americas, two societies, then we can’t continue to have two sets of rules.
What will you say and do when you see injustice. What are your 1000 words when you see this picture? And speechless is not an acceptable answer.
Nehemiah and Justified Anger exist to make our community—our society better by assuring African Americans are treated justly—and that non-Black people refuse to rest until that is the case.