I am sick and tired of living in an America where there are people who are more outraged by a Black man kneeling to peacefully protest for his rights than they are by George Floyd, a Black man, dying because his neck was kneeled on by a police officer as he said: “I can’t breathe.”

How is it that it took nearly two months to even arrest the two white supremacists that murdered Ahmaud Arbery, an innocent Black man that was on a run and minding his own business? How is it that the four police officers responsible for George Floyd’s death, something caught on video in broad daylight, have not been arrested?

Donald Trump belittled the protestors that are justifiably angry by calling them “THUGS” on Twitter. Over a social media platform, the president of the United States threatened to have the National Guard come in and shoot up a protest if it got any worse.

I’m ashamed to live in a country where the person holding the highest position of power will sooner turn to violence and death than he will to doing something that will actually solve or lessen the problem at hand.

Although this uprise was caused by the anger that came out of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, this is not just about them. This is about the hundreds of innocent Black people that have been killed by the police who are supposed to protect them. This is about the countless injustices that Black people face in America.

It’s extremely disappointing that people have been arrested at protests for their rights before the officers who murdered George Floyd have been arrested for manslaughter.

The systems and institutions that are currently in place in the United States are extremely racially biased. The current criminal justice system was established during the Jim Crow era, and the modern-day criminal justice system helps to preserve the racial order that thrived in this era. 

In the early parts of the twentieth century, the primary function of the system was to uphold the racist ideas held by many Americans at the time. It’s not surprising that now, in 2020, many of these ideas have lived on within the police system.

The least we can do is hold officers and anyone else involved accountable for the deaths of these innocent people. 

I don’t know what it will take for all of this to end, because it clearly is going to take more than the deaths of hundreds of innocent Black Americans. One thing I do know is this- a standard when deciding whether or not you should become a police officer is thinking to yourself: “Am I racially biased?” and “Have I ever felt at all threatened by a Black person in my everyday life?”

This is because becoming a police officer is completely optional, but being born Black in America is not. 

My final questions for everyone who is sitting back and tolerating these injustices and/or the people that have the power to hold racist murderers accountable and serve justice to the families of victims are this: “Who do we call when police officers are the ones doing the killing?” and “When will it end?”