“In this society, I could lose my life at the hands of a paid government official, on camera, with my daughter by my side, and still be blamed for it or have it justified…even when the story comes to light and it shows an accidental killing. Black Lives Matter, in my opinion, is an outcry to this society to inform it of our collective humanity. All Black lives must matter. The impact that BLM has had on me has been huge. I can now stand firm in the very thing that I tried to highlight much of my life…and that is the injustice that black people face on a daily basis. BLM is fighting for equal justice under the law. In addition to that, I can talk more about the unwanted looks I get from white Americans when they believe I don’t belong in a certain space. I can talk about not getting a job because my name sounds Black. I can speak on the overall collective struggle of being Black in America and have more and more of my non-POC (People of Color) friends listen without invalidating my experience and chalking it up to paranoia. My anger, our collective anger, is a little more valid than it was in the past. My fear is that my daughter might have to struggle to make it to adulthood with a father. The overall fear is that I won’t get to raise her to adulthood because my life could ‘justifiably’ be cut short.”
