I can’t breathe

I can’t breathe, my lungs are about to burst, my heart is heavier than anything, my thoughts are excruciating and are turning to an incurable fever…As I dealt with these symptoms, I decided to test for covid-19 and surprisingly the results were negative. I realised I wasn’t suffering from the infamous disease whereas from empathy.

 

Have you ever cried watching a movie? The pain feels so real that you want to jump on the TV and save the person. That’s exactly how I felt watching those 8 minutes’ video where George Floyd pleaded for his life. I am familiar with African –Americans pleading for their lives in the court room, asking for plead deals, mercy, and so on. Those bargain take years, however, George only had 8 minutes to beg for his life.

 

I think about the people there watching this happening and knowing they can’t do anything because they instantly become another set of victims. Is that easy it is to kill us? You can just snap your fingers and we are gone like nothing? When are you going to stop making us punching bags?

 

I visualise the police officer having a bad day and thinking ‘Let me hurt a ni***’ so I can feel better about myself. On the other hand, I imagine George waking up and going to the nearest store to buy milk for his daughter (dramatization) and then all of sudden he is dead.

 

I have so much to say…it’s like everything is boiling in my throat wanting to come up. They are pressing my neck…familiar, right? What were his last thoughts when they pressed his life out of him? How does it feel to drown with no water and see others looking at your pain but unable to save you?

 

I keep thinking about Trevon Martin, a seventeen year old black man, walking home wearing a hoodie, and with his headphones, listening to music and a police approaches and kills him. Did he know why he was being killed? Did he know that he did nothing wrong?

 

Replace that hoodie for a mask…the masks we have been accustomed to for the last three months. Imagine walking home wearing it and they mistake you for someone else. There are so many scenarios that a negro can find himself as a victim of police shootings and brutally. And when you are gone no matter how much evidence your family brings to the court room, they will always be acquitted because our colour will always be the major evidence.

 

To be honest, we have been wearing masks for as long as I can remember, pretending we were not completely black. We change how we talk, how we dress, in order to be treated with respect, in order for the colour of our skin not be a death sentence.

 

While, this is not only about white vs black, it’s evil vs good. This is about the ones who vowed to protected us. The ones that should be spreading peace, instead they make the streets unease. I understand that being surrounded by so many crimes makes you daltonic to justice and injustice, nonetheless they still need to protect us.

 

 

They say racism is loud but not louder than the voices in my head telling me to do something, say something. I don’t want to just share the video on social media, and watch it as it happens. They say there are two types of people in the world, the ones who do evil and the ones who see evil being done and didn’t do anything. Seeing this happening while I am confined at home makes me angry but I volunteer to make the next person understand why we all should join Americans in this war.

 

When fighting for something, it’s not only about a place, a region, it’s about the myriad of people affected by empathy. I can’t ignore this just because I am thousands of miles away. It affects me…it affects how I am going to wake up tomorrow, how am I going to see life after all these…make it stop please!

 

Any movement is inclusive. As Africans, if we are going to ‘Silence the guns’ it is imperative for us to protect black lives at all costs. African American as the name itself states are African descendants. They are the great grandchildren of Africans who came to America to pursue a better life. Perhaps, they moved to America because back then African governments failed to start movements as ‘Silencing the Guns’.

 

The black lives matter is the promotion and protection of black people’s rights in America. It’s black people coming together for something greater and pushing towards a clean democracy. Also, Its scope is a qualifier for the respect for human rights in  the world.

 

If you still fail to understand your participation in this and why the movement is decisive for African lives. Social media took upon themselves to explain it through an analogy. Let’s say you live in a neighbourhood and all houses matter but if one house is on fire, we should come together to help.

 

If you still think it doesn’t include you. Think about Amadou Diallo, a Guinean immigrant, who was wrongly killed and shot 41 times by New York police officers back in 1999. He was mistaken for a black rape suspect. Is this enough? That’s it hit close home?

 

We can’t just rely in the utopia America and other developed countries for our holidays destinations; and send our children to have a better education, if they are not safe. The statue of liberty failed them, thus, it is our duty to ensure that the country known as the hope for most Africans is free from any kind of oppression.

 

This pandemic has shown us Africans how our governments and systems have failed us, therefore, allow the ‘Black lives matter’ to guide us on how to end all wars, civil conflicts, violent conflicts and more. And in return, let’s extend the ‘Silencing the guns’ to the world, let’s amplify this fight.

 

The black lives matter is a motivation for Africa to fight for a better Africa.