My culture? Well, when majority of people look at me they think, “well, of course she’s black”. That’s not what I am. That’s just one out of a million things to describe me. And just for this one adjective that describes me. Hundreds of young black americans, just like me, are getting brutally mistreated by the police each year. And it’s only getting worse. Over the fourteen years I’ve been alive, I’ve only seen racism worsen. Not only have I started to understand it more, it’s just, I’ve started to notice it, and so has social media. If I, Deborah D, have seen videos of unarmed Black Americans harmed by police, the men and women who are supposed to HELP us, SUPPORT us, and SAVE us. Then why are they hurting us? Why isn’t anyone doing anything to save us? To help us? People put proof that the police are hurting blacks for no reason. And they still choose to sit around and say it was another accident. But how many more of these “accidents” until it’s too late. What do we do? Wait until we become another statistic?

It’s just us African Americans, we are truly trying to have a voice. However, they keep shutting us down. How far do the police have to go? How many people do they have to hurt until we speak up and do something about it? Just like Shel Silverstein said, God should just “Turn Off the Light”. Without light, we couldn’t see our differences. Because we are no different from one another. Our skin is just a mask, and our heart and brain will define our humanity. Racism is not humanity. We’re not born with it. Therefore it is taught. Babies are born to love anyone or anything that raises them right, or treats them good. If society didn’t teach young children to classify people as broke, poor, too dark, or even perfect. Then this world would be a much more enjoyed place for the people, the people of our beautiful world.

But why can’t we just love each other for who we are? Why do we look for a certain color, race, pigment of skin? We teach ourselves to think that all we care about is money, features, a girlfriend, or how many likes we get on a picture. Why do we learn to care about these things, and not our African Americans? Yes, each person, each culture and ethnicity does have their very own struggles but I’m focusing on us blacks. I’m not being selfish, I’m talking because we are not getting noticed enough for this violence to completely come to a blank stop, and finally end this battle we’ve been facing for hundreds of years. It’s 2017, we need more than just a hashtag to save us. #BlackLivesMatter is not saying only Black Lives Matter, the hashtag is saying we don’t want to be treated like this. We don’t want to be scared to live. Some people fear to sleep in their own home, to walk across the street, or even see a cop drive passed them. How is it we fear something that is supposed to protect us? Walk with us. Save us. Help us. All from danger. But they are danger, now isn’t that ironic?

RIP Sandra Bland
Trayvon Martin
Michael Brown
Jordan Edward
Keith Lamont Scott
Kendrick Johnson
Philando Castille… and many more that had their life cut short.