i’m afraid of simply being reduced to a hashtag

tell me again it’s not about race. tell me again when a white man gets 3 months in jail for raping a woman but a man selling CDs, trying to make a living for his family is brutally murder. tell me again it’s not about race. when a black man reaching for his id is shot 4 times but a white man can go into a black church and kill 9 people and he is simply arrested. tell me again it is not about race when somehow we fear a black man in a hoodie more than a white man with a backpack walking into a movie theater when in reality the latter has done more harm. tell me one more fucking time it’s not about race when I have to sit and pretend I am not terrified. I have to sit silently and try not to cry. I have to sit and not say a word to try and save a lecture from a white person about how it’s not about race. it’s fucking about race, try and get that through your head. and maybe next time, before you try and tell me it’s not about race, think of how many people just like me, just like my father, I have to see get murdered by people who see dark skin as a crime. last time I checked, my dark skin was beautiful, and it sure as hell should not make me any less of a human being.