Why YOU Protesting Matters

Members of the black community need our support right now. Day after day, they suffer injustices that those outside of their community would never even fathom as a risk. Going for a jog, sitting at home, walking through a neighborhood. Even a routine traffic stop would seem more an annoyance for most rather than the possibility of a life-ending encounter. But that is why YOU must protest. Because for the black community, all of those situations, and many more every day interactions, could be a death sentence.

You might ask yourself, why it matters if you join in protesting. YOU weren’t impacted. Yes, you can concede it’s a tragedy but tragedies happen, right? Yes, they do. But what is going on, what has been going on for centuries, is beyond tragedy. It is a frustrating and frightening way of life for so many.

Here’s why it matters. When targeted people are the only ones speaking out, nothing changes. You probably have a privilege afforded to you based on your race, based on your station in life, based on your income. There is someone out there who doesn’t have those and that small fact is putting them at risk for dying over something you wouldn’t.

For a broken system to be recognized, people who are not impacted by it need to speak out against it’s flaws. If a broken system seems to impact everyone in some way, there is far more pressure to rebuild it.

Educate yourself. Ask your friends in the black community. Seek out leaders and ask them honestly how you can best support the conversation and help be a voice speaking out against injustice. A popular protest phrase is ‘silence equals compliance’ and in this case it is especially true. Don’t be silent anymore.

It may not impact you today but a broken system left unchecked will inevitably start to impact you more and more directly over time. And when that happens, you will be scrambling to find someone to advocate for you. End the cycle. Change the system.