[Ari]

Things To Stop Being Distracted By When A Black Person Gets Murdered By Police |

Mia McKenzie

This country has spent the last several centuries systematically killing Black people. Black death is built into the system. Black death, alongside Native American genocide, built the system. Yet, whenever yet another unarmed Black person is killed by police, it’s somehow our fault? We must’ve been threatening/drunk/holding a BB gun/maybe possibly shoplifted some candy? Because after 500 years of never needing a reason, they suddenly need a reason? No. No. They have never needed a reason.

I understand how hard it is to accept that as a Black person your life means so little in this country that you can be killed by police for nothing. That walking down the street while Black can be the only reason your life, or the life of your son or daughter or father or partner or friend, ends. You want there to be another reason, any other reason.

The same goes for white people and violence against woman. People inherently want to believe everyone is good, especially when it's someone they identify with or have been taught is good, so they come up with reasons/excuses to keep from believing that people can do bad or evil things. Unfortunately the system knows this and plays to it, it spends its time hiding the bad to keep the illusion up all the while feeding people possible options for excuses, which they readily accept because they were already looking for them so they wouldn't have to accept the scarier truth. That America is extremely racist and the police are just a white gang.