After reading about the murder of Alton Sterling yesterday I made a conscious decision not to write about it because emotionally I couldn’t bring myself to do it. This morning, I woke up to the news of the murder of Philando Castile and it was heartbreaking watching the beginning of the video. And again I can’t bring myself to write about it because what I am going to write that’s new? We hear about these deaths month after month and the statistics keeps increasing, but emotionally I can’t describe how draining and traumatic it is to watch these people take their last breaths. At this point I don’t even feel like I have the legitimacy to talk about trauma after watching the video of Alton Sterling’s son crying uncontrollably at a news conference because his father had just been murdered while making a living for his family, or listening to a four year old girl witness the murder of her mum’s boyfriend and telling her traumatised mom “It’s okay, I’m here with you.’
Black men and women are being lynched ‘legally’ in America and let’s not talk about the death of black and Asian people in UK prisons either. Jesse Williams captured it perfectly in his speech earlier this month when he said, “we know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill white people everyday” and “The burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. That’s not our job, alright – stop with all that.”
While the videos below are graphic I want to share it because it is important that we expose the injustice of their deaths.
Love,
Muslimgirljournals
America is an entity built primarily on white supremacy, brutality, and racial demagoguery. The police is meant to be an institution that exists to serve and protect this system, by controlling and keeping those who are not white in their place in the totem of racial hierarchy. They are modern-day overseers.
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My sister, please take care of yourself. I am so sorry this is happening. I hope this can help a little – http://justjasmineblog.com/self-care-for-people-of-color-after-emotional-and-psychological-trauma/.
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Thank you for your comment sis and for the helpful link.
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