REMINDER: We Are Still Fighting White Supremacy. The Fight Hasn't Stopped.

Just in case you forgot…

…the is fight hasn’t stopped.

And it probably never will.
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The fight against white supremacy is about more than police brutality. Yes, police brutality is what spurs the largest protests against systemic racism in this country. That is because the policing system and the criminal justice system as a whole purposefully resemble modern-day slavery. I don’t even think to resemble is the right word, but that’s the best word I could come up with for now.

However, while police brutality is one of our biggest fights as the lives of Black men and women are lost at 4x the rate of our white counterparts at the hands of police due, the real fight is white supremacy. The symptoms of white supremacy are police brutality, mass incarceration, the school to prison pipeline, disparities in the healthcare system, high maternal and infant mortality rates among Black women and their babies, the income and wealth gap between white and Black people, the education gap between white and Black students and so much more. All of these are results of systemic racism. Many of these symptoms of systemic racism feed each other which then lead to higher crime rates among and police interactions among Black people and the police force, higher assumptions of crime, violence, and threat from police officers toward Black people, and ultimately, more Black lives lost at the hands of police.

So, this is about way more than police brutality.
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In fact, this is personal.
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This is about the fight to end generational trauma that has been purposefully caused by white supremacy to keep Black people at the bottom no matter what. This is where I experience the direct impacts of systemic racism. With each passing day, it becomes more and more apparent just how much systemic racism has affected me and my family.

At first glance, it probably doesn't look that way. My husband and I are both college-educated. My husband has a great job that allows me to stay home with the kids and do this work on the side. We are blessed to have a roof over our head, we are not hungry, we aren’t in the prison system. I homeschool my kids and overall live a pretty decent life. How in the world could I be impacted by systemic racism, you may ask?

So. Many. Ways.

For one, the way I was raised is a direct result of systemic racism. The Black community has always been a tough-love kind of community. We’ve had to be for our survival. We’ve been beaten, bruised, lynched, separated from our families, had our rights violated, and so much more. When you live in this constant trauma, there isn’t much room for warm and fuzzy love. When adults have undealt with trauma, it comes out in their parenting, which then causes their children to endure their own trauma. Thus, generational cycles continue.

Other ways systemic racism has impacted me:

• It’s much more difficult for me to advance in my career as a Black woman. Even just as a content creator, it’s much harder. Whiteness is a gold standard. Even the appearance of a Black person is less receptive than that of a white person.

• My husband and I may be doing well financially because we have worked our actual butts off to get to this point, but we do not come from a line of wealth whatsoever. Wealth is inherited, and systems such as redlining made it nearly impossible for Black families to get home loans; enforcing segregation. We pray that wealth inheritance will hopefully begin with us and our children.

• When I was a teacher in a predominately white school, I faced noticeably unfair treatment due to the color of my skin. My frustrations were seen as angry, whereas the frustration of my white counterparts was seen as acceptable. I was often questioned regarding my professional expertise whereas my colleagues could have a lesser performance than me and receive praise for a job well done.

• My husband has been passed over for promotions that he was more qualified for than the person who received said promotion at his previous job

• We’ve both been closely watched in stores, treated unfairly at a retail store that we both worked at, and many other microaggressions that are all a result of systemic racism

This is why the fight hasn’t stopped. This is why the fight may never stop. But, we have to keep fighting.
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This is about the little Black and Brown boys and girls whose literal survival depends on this world changing.
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This is about the Black men and women you call friends who have so much pain, hurt, and exhaustion just from living daily as Black people in America.
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This is about the sons and daughters that have walked away from Jesus because they feel betrayed by their church and the racism within a home they trusted.
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This is about me. Someone who has spent her mere 30 years of existence suffering from childhood trauma that was caused by generations of trauma that was never healed.
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This is about you. The Black person/POC reading this who deserves nothing but to walk in freedom every single day.
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And, this is about you. The white person reading this that has the opportunity to say enough is enough and make it a lifelong commitment to ending white supremacy once and for all for equity, freedom, and peace for everyone.
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This is about us.
Don’t stop fighting.
Don’t forget about those promises you made.
Don’t forget about the black square you posted.
Don’t forget.
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This is a matter of life and death.
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Don’t forget.