Will My Three Month Old Grandson Have to Protest?

My younger daughter asked me a profound question as she and her sister recently prepared to protest in Pittsburgh PA, joining others across the nation in a cry for justice on behalf of George Floyd and the black community. She asked if I thought her son, my grandson, would have to march during his lifetime. My grandson is just about three months old. In that moment I had a revelation. My mother protested. I protested. Now my daughters protest. That’s three generations of protesting directly connected to my life alone. That’s three generations of being angry, full of rage, disgusted, bearing trauma after trauma, losing brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, uncles, aunties, leaders and more.

I began to wonder if we fully grasp the depth and breadth of racism in American society; the depth and breadth of a racist society designed to maintain status quo; the depth and breadth of the commitment to keep black people in a place that has been systematically designed for them in America. Its reach is just as far wide as it is deep. It’s a commitment based on lies, deception, false pretenses, false superiority, false interpretations, false allegations and false privilege; to keep us in our place of subjugation by any means necessary. We can continue to burn buildings from LA to Georgia and everywhere in between but to what end as the brutality against us escalates…