This will be short….I think. So many thoughts and emotions going through my mind y’all, so this may be written roughly….

I’ve seen a lot of comments on different social media platforms in regards to protesting and rioting. A few examples…why don’t people protest about the black on black murders/crimes? Why didn’t anyone protest about ICE caging kids at the border? Why this and not that? There’s so many things in this country that can be protested. Especially when it’s regarding the minority. Rioting is cool, but not the looting that most times follows it. If we gonna riot, it should be towards the reason of the protest. But, back to the subject at hand.

When the Freedom Riders, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panther Party and other groups protested back in the 60s & 70s, they protested with a purpose AND agenda. Their purpose, as much as today, was for freedom and equality. Their agenda….sacrifice until changes were made. They didn’t allow us to sit anywhere on the bus, particularly the front, ok, we just won’t ride your bus then for however long. You don’t want to protect the black community, ok, we’ll take care and protect our own communities. There’s so many examples of where if the majority did something against us, that we took matters into our own hands, and out of theirs. Catch that….out of theirs.

In order to take matters in our own hands and out of theirs, we have to be united together. When we protest, it has to be more than just meeting up, chanting and holding poster signs. We have to do more! What are we willing to sacrifice for change? When the brand Gucci, and I think Burberry too, had their moment of racist material, the black community yelled to stop wearing those brands. When Starbucks called the cops on the brothers who were sitting in their establishment, we called for a boycott to stop buying Starbucks. Jimmy Johns pizza and so many other companies and brands, we’ve yelled to protest and boycott against. Most might have done it for a couple of hours or days, but then what? Oh, I need that. Oh, can’t nobody tell me what to buy or wear. I’m gonna do whatever I want to do. Or, if we boycott all of these things, then what we gonna eat? How we gonna live? When our people protested back then, they backed up what they were saying.

Back then = sacrifices. Today = talk. White people are the majority in this country. United States of America. White people own the majority of the businesses in this country. I read a post of Instagram saying, “African Americans only make up about 14% of the population yet our purchasing power is $1.2 trillion!!!! We make up 50% of overall spending!” Hmmm….. I guess I should’ve titled this one, Talk vs Action. Or, Sacrifices vs Meetups. I know what I’m working on and plan to do. What about you?⁣ Choose wisely.

“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” ― Angela Davis