The voice for the voiceless

My Experience as a minority in my community in New York.

I am Afro-Latino and want to see justice served. I want to see my people be able to walk outside without being harassed and targeted because of their skin color.

I want to see the police officers who involved in that horrible murdering of George Floyd get 1st degree murder, not just a slap on the wrist and have 10 years in prison.

Police Brutality has going on for decades, while Black Bodies have been cremated over and over again. This is not because of one “Bad Cop”, this is because of the white system that has allowed it to happen.

Check your Privilege. If you see whats going on and haven’t spoken up, look yourself in the mirror and address it.

If you are offended, thats means you are part of problem. Plain and Simple.

REAL JUSTICE.

East Harlem is a small community; many people are striving for better as they go to work, school, etc. As things change, some things remain the same.

Poverty. Crime. Homelessness. Lack of Resources for people of color like myself.

On 125th street and Lenox, Pathmark closed because of bankruptcy a couple years ago, so people who shopped there had to go to another supermarket in the area. A year ago, Whole Foods opened its doors for people who didn’t have access to quality, healthy food could get it. This was a great thing for people who didn’t know where to get their groceries from other than a bodega, which is not good at all.

I remember walking down the stairs to the train station on 135th street and saw 12 police officers right behind me. They were supposedly “protecting” the back door to see if someone didn’t pay their fare.

Policing is something I witness daily, as police cars patrol the neighborhood throughout the day and night.

Majority of the time, the police will park in one spot and stay there for an hour, 2 hours, or more. I remember a time where I was coming home from school and when I entered the building, someone was running and a police officer was behind the person, handcuffed him, etc.

My reaction was of shock and silence. As I am writing this, a police car siren went off in the background outside. My community is a predominately Hispanic and Black area, Policing seems to be at its highest.

There’s police on the buses, police on the subways, police near a park or building, they are everywhere. Its very difficult , but I have no choice but to do everything in my power to improve my family and communities lives.

The World is watching.

History is being made.

400 years of Institutional Racism:

Slavery: 1619-1865

Black Codes: 1865-1866

KKK: 1865-Present

Jim Crow: 1877-1954

RedLining: 1934-1968

War on Drugs: 1971-Present

Mass Incarceration: 1973-Present

Three strikes Law: 1993-Present

We Kneel.

Ya”ll mad.

We march.

Ya”ll mad.

We Protest.

Y”all mad.

We die.

Y”all silent.

This is a political post because as a minority who has witnessed the atrocites of police brutality, poverty, deplorable housing, Gentifrication, Poor schools, I HAVE HAD ENOUGH.

We are told this is the “land of the free” but we are not free. We are still in handcuffs 400 years later.

Hopefully, One Day, I and many others like me can exist in a world where we aren’t judged by the color of skin, but by our character.

BLACK LIVES MATTER.