OUR VIEW: WE’RE NOT KEEPING QUIET!

Initially, I announced that I was going to do a Q/A session with you guys to celebrate my 6 month anniversary since the launch of my blog but then I thought “what better way to celebrate it than doing this?” So I decided instead to use this day to raise the voices of people like you and I concerning the matter that is hot at hand: The brutal killings that just never seem to stop.

This is a matter that has been going on for years and it doesn’t seem to be going anytime soon. The matter is racism. After alll these years there are still situations that always end up in the blacks, as we are called, at the receiving end of the whites brutality. We just have to continue to help ourselves as a community to remain strong because no matter how the issue of racism has been subsided there will always be someone out there that hates blacks and he or she will find a way to make sure their hate is known ~Fola

To think that someone would look at me and the first thing that comes to his/her head is “BLACK” is scary but then when it gets to hating me and thinking of ways to just make me disappear is alarming. My dad told me that in UK, someone can just walk up to a black person and stab him with a knife (because they’re not allowed to carry weapons around) just because he doesn’t like seeing his face. That’s not normal! That’s highly alarming! And to think that this is the kind of world I live in and the kind of world that my kids may be born into just makes me speechless.

I’ve watched a lot of videos and seen a lot of posts about this issue. It has been very painful realizing how much hatred a human being can have for another person. How so much hatred can exist in a person because of the colour of our skin. This month of May alone has been crazy enough with the coronavirus, we don’t need this to make everything worse. When I watched the video of George Floyd being murdered I was very pained, sad that a person who is meant to protect us is killing us because of our colour. This is misuse of power, because you’re given the power to carry a gun and use it to defend the people doesn’t mean you should use it for your feelings towards people of colour, that’s just wicked and inhumane. People think the riots won’t do anything but we’ve been quiet and peaceful for a very long back and things haven’t changed. We as people of colour need to show everyone that this is not right or justifiable in any way. We need to spread the awareness because without our voices there won’t be change. Nothing would have been done to the police officer if we didn’t speak up and that’s very disgusting because it’s injustice. It might not be a problem to some of people because of their colour but these same people listen to music made by black people, they have black friends, they eat food from our culture, they get hairstyles from us, the list of everything they get from us cannot be fully listed because it’s a lot. This shows that the fight is not only for black people but for everyone because as much as they matter too, we matter. We are human beings like them not animals. ~Oyinkansola

Sometimes I think about like how I’m going to send my kids abroad because I want them to get the best of education and experience but now I don’t know anymore. I’d rather they not be educationally okay than for them to be subjected to such happenings. Honestly, racism is an understatement for the kind of inhuman treatment that black people are subjected to. You don’t like my skin, okay but wanting to kneel on my neck or stab me with a knife is next level crazy and such things shouldn’t be tolerated but it sucks, the kind of system we’re in right now. That if we don’t raise our voices, nothing happens.

In as much as I’m happy the police officer was arrested, I dont think the punishment fit the crime
To me he got away with a slap on the wrist
The government had allowed him do things like this for wayyy too long…..I mean the guy has 12 other police brutality cases dating wayyyy back since about 2005 or so
He should’ve been arrested on the spot, that whole FBI investigation was just one bullshit to try and salvage the situation and save face
And again the man is a coward for him to use his daughter (who is a toddler) to get people all over the world to sympathize with him. And it’s sad that their president is no better
He’s an embarrassment
He can’t even communicate in a respectful manner on social media. ~Sophie

Nobody’s saying other lives don’t matter but we’re telling you right now, that you have not made our lives matter these past years and we’re not keeping quiet about it anymore because they should matter and they do matter!

Our reality as Africans living in Africa might be different. Our day to day fears don’t involve the color of our skin. Here, we are not ‘black’. This doesn’t mean we’re any different from the people getting killed on a day to day basis on foreign land because of the color of their skin or the stigma around their people; that land we idealize so much through the lens of capitalism. Once we step outside our continent, we become ‘black’. We become a target for racism, discrimination, brutality and marginalisation. This fight does not solely belong to the black Americans. It belongs to the Africans, the Asians, and any other oppressed group. Just because we’re lucky enough not to die for existing, doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been a reality for us. ~Jessica

I’m just really happy that everyone is using every platform they have to address this because it’s about time we realize that only we got our backs and we have to watch it for each other. It’s the least we can do for ourselves.

Its dumb how the matter is being addressed because it’s clear that the cop had the intention to kill and they’d want charge him with third degree murder?….that’s stupid!, and the fact that he didn’t do anything guaranteeing the way the police handled him is even more annoying. As far as I’m concerned the police officers in that video weren’t human. For God sake the man kept yelling “I can’t breathe!, I can’t breathe!”, but the dumb ass cop kept kneeling on his neck (a restraint measure that wasn’t even taught to them at the training academy) and they say it wasnt intentional murder wtf!, he was on his neck for 5 minutes+. Not to mention there were other police officers who were behind the jeep restraining the man already. It’s all sad to be honest the police who take up the task of protecting its citizens are the ones leading to their demise, I really just hope Floyd is in a better place #RIP #ICANTBREATHE✊🏻✊🏿✊🏼 ~ Ogor

God created and said it was good and then you that didn’t add one grain of sand to my creation think that you can come and just decide how I should be treated or how I should act because my skin is a darker shade than yours is CRAP!

All lives don’t matter, if Black lives don’t
I have honestly been emotionally drained today, every social media app I open there’s so much pain and hurt going round the world, it so overwhelming for me, I’ve always been an empath, I tend to feel other peoples emotions very deeply, so imagine me watching a video of an unarmed man crying out for help whilst being choked by an officer of the law, and I refuse to allow this to become another hash tag!!! I have promised myself to do everything that I can to help, no matter how small it seems. All lives matter, I agree but will you see someone being choked and the first thing you do is check if anyone else is hurting, this is a life or death situation, any minute longer and the person is dead, this is the same for what is going on right now, brothers, sisters, husbands, fathers , HUMAN beings for crying out loud are dying, just because of the colour of their skin, Black people can’t jog for fear of their lives- Ahmaud Arbery
They can’t be arrested without the fear of being choked – George Floyd , Eric garner
They can’t hit on a lady without the fear of being beaten up – Emmet till
They can’t even be neighbours without the fear of being accused of rape because of a dream- Moses EL
They can’t go to the police station without the fear of being accused of a crime- Korey wise
Heck they can’t even sleep without the fear of being shot – Breonna Taylor. Apart from the police brutality abroad, even in our home country where all of us have the same skin, we are still oppressed!
Faith without action is dead, its not enough for us to just sit down at home and pray about it, we need to speak up! We need to help in anyway that we can !!!
#wearehumanstoo #blacklivesmatter ~Naomi

We Blacks are unique, unique in many different ways in which people, even we the Blacks, don’t understand ~ Dave

This doesn’t just end at black lives abroad but also at home because, even we oppress ourselves.

As a black,
As an african, i stand as a representation of my race and of the human race
My heart bleeds as i see the segregation, the dehumanisation, the cruelty and sheer wickedness of the maimings of the black race and shedding of innocent blood
We are meant to stand in one accord, in peace and in love instead of taking lives of our fellow selves ~Praise

These aren’t just flags of many rainbow colours. These flags represent people, lives, beliefs, cultures, traditions, values, foods, clothings that vary and so much more. All these matter, all these are tangible and I can’t imagine a world without all these.

So when we look at people, let our first thoughts be “human” not “black” or “white”. It is possible. I believe it will happen.

Announcement! • The Q/A that was originally supposed to be posted today will be posted on Thursday, so you can still send in your questions. • And yes, I’m going to be publishing new posts every Monday and Thursday for those of you who can’t get tired of my content😊. Yes! I gat you.