It is no coincidence that so many non-black people are finally realizing the heavy presence of racism. For decades since the Civil Rights Movement, they have long said that racism no longer exists. That it has been done away with. This has allowed for a better environment for racism to thrive in. It is so subtle and not entirely easy to call out. This is how it is prospering in fellow countries like Canada and the U.K. who call themselves advanced places for living.
It is only present for those enduring the causes. When we go into stores, people clutch their purses. When we go into banks we receive lower credit scores. When we go house hunting, real estate presents a struggle. When we go to drive we are pulled over at an unbalanced random. When we...When we.... whatever comes next is a whole case built on the color of our skin and the outside behaving horribly to it.
Upon returning home from serving in World War 2, from which you earned a purple heart having been the only one of a 13 men platoon to survive a nazi bombing, you were met with another war. Drinking from a white fountain, the only one at the bus station, almost cost you your life. You were fatally beaten by a mob of white men, requiring you a month in the hospital. Not only that but you were in your military uniform walking on a cane caused from the permanent damages of the war. You were on your way home and only wanted a drink of water.
"The very same people whose freedoms and liberties I had fought and suffered to secure in the horrors of war...they beat me like a dog...merely because I wanted a drink of water."
-H.W.
This revolting attack drew you to become a civil rights activist. You first joined the NAACP, then you joined Dr. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. You, alongside John Lewis and Martin Luther King, organized and led the Bloody Sunday, March. There you and the entire group of protestors were beaten with nightsticks and teargassed. You were arrested at least 120 different times for organizing such marches. Those who knew you personally spoke of your fire and wild card nature. You were by no means playing any games with your oppressors and those who held your access to justice in their hands. Your motto was "Unbossed and Unbought". You were rightfully angry and were thirsty for real change.
This new generation fighting the same oppression you were in the 60s are met with the same spirit of enough is enough. We cannot take their ignorance of our pain anymore. Everyone will have to feel it first before we will ever shut up.
Sincerely,
Kayla Mary Jane
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