If I Ever Become a Hashtag
Understand that I did my best to comply with their demands while not coming off as threatening
If I ever become a hashtag, don’t assume it was intentional. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor couldn’t have wanted to be famous this way. My paranoia about dying from police brutality is not unwarranted. You can only pretend to be human for so long until your dignity gets exposed for being nonexistent. And the numbness you feel from seeing yourself die so many times almost convinces you that the only freedom we have is death.
The moment I become a martyr, understand that racism does not live in the past. The white tiger still roams around uncaged. When you see it, don’t assume that it’s a mirage. It’s as real as the privilege you are born with and the history that can’t be erased with blood and waves. No matter how far we have come, we still carry nostalgia with us.
Systematic oppression didn’t end with the Emancipation Proclamation or even the civil rights movement. The mentality of seeing African Americans as fragments has persisted ever since we were counted as three-fifths of a man. The black experience involves sacrificing a part of yourself to a society that was originally designed to strip you of your inherent worth. From mental trauma to physical abuse, our bodies are…
