Photo Journal: Black Lives Matter Protest in Amsterdam
There's a lot going on. What else can I say? Our generation is living through one of the most impactful civil rights movements in history — all while facing a global pandemic and the stressful effects of living isolated in lockdown.
It's been a really emotional few weeks. I hope you've found some catharsis through talking with loved ones, journaling, or expressing yourself through action or creativity. Our purpose now is to amplify our voices, especially marginalized voices, and come together with a positive purpose.
On June 1, 2020, more than 10k people gathered in Amsterdam’s Dam Square to grieve, support, and declare the changes our society urgently needs. I hope that by coming together in outrage and voicing our anger, frustration, and heartbreak, we will create a wave of change for the generations ahead. We are fed up with living in an ignorant, manipulative system. Things have got to change.
No surprise, tensions are high. We’re (finally) engaged in global conversations about police brutality, systemic racism, #BLM, civil rights and protests around the world. These topics affect people of color across all cultures and centuries of unhinged colonialism have contributed to and perpetuated them for generations. None of this is new to us. It's only new to you if ya weren’t paying attention.
I’ll let the words and messages speak for themselves.
Lately, I’ve been at a loss for words and often trapped in an emotional spiral of heartbreak, rage, and exhaustion. I've tried many times to put this post together, but nothing seems to feel right. All I can do now is write from the heart, share parts of my experience and hope that something here can add to the wave of change we so desperately deserve.
As a mixed-race woman of color who grew up in the Southern United States, racism, prejudice, and civil rights have been a topic of conversation between my family and friends for as long as I can remember. It’s almost unbelievable to think that if my mom and I were peers, we would have been legally able to attend the same school simply because I’m Black and she isn’t. I say it is almost unbelievable because I grew up in Florida, a southern state with a very scary racist past, and present. Growing up in Florida, I experienced racist interactions, microaggressions, ignorance, and complacency more often than I'd like to admit.
In the 1990s, when we moved to Florida, I wasn’t even “allowed” to enroll in the public school system because they didn’t have a ‘category’ for mixed-race people. The administration went so far as telling my mom to register me as Hispanic because, as a light-skinned person of color, that’s how they perceived me. Come on! Are you kidding me? They actually asked a seven-year-old to deny their own identity and heritage in order to register for school... in the 1990s?!
When I got to high school — in the early 2000s — confederate flags still were not banned. One of the most ignorant and racist symbols and I saw it frequently next to me in class, in the cafeteria and at after-school activities. This was an almost daily and not-so-subtle reminder of America's very hateful "past" and a trigger kids for kids of color to be on high alert. Not too long after, Trayvon Marten was killed in Sanford, the next town over from where I grew up, a town I spent a lot of my childhood in. These anecdotes might seem mind-blowing to you, but the experiences shared here are only a fraction of the negativity and systemic racism that Black people experience around the world.
For far too long, too many people lost in their own privilege have so easily overlooked these frequent aggressions or stayed silent watching them unfold. And now, here we are. Generations of people of color have had similar conversations while others gaslight us to believe it isn’t happening. They say we're exaggerating, sensitive, problematic. NO. There's a major problem that won't change until we change it together. Enough is enough.
Change will not happen overnight — it’s about being a little bit more conscious every day. Learn about your history, and stay connected to what's going on in communities different from your own. Look around you, pay attention and stand up for what's right in every situation. You set an example for those around you, so if you've been complicit in the past, please start making more of an effort now. The resources are out there.
