BY AUSTIN GOFF
If you stand with me, you realize that decades of peaceful protests against police brutality have fallen upon deaf ears and been pushed aside.
If you stand with me and the protests, rallies, and riots all over America are upsetting or uncomfortable: Good. It means you can’t ignore it.
If you stand with me, you acknowledge that people are being killed by police because they look like me.
If you stand with me, you uplift the message of these events and condemn the opportunistic violence and crime from those that wish to discredit it.
If you stand with me, you are aware that we need allies, not saviors.
If you stand with me, you seek out opportunities to support the black community.
If you stand with me, you speak up and speak out when you see racism against my community
If you stand with me, you have difficult and honest conversations with your friends and family about how to do and be better.
If you stand with me, you accept that any of those black people that lost their lives could have been me.
If you stand with me, you know that growing up as a black face in a white space has hardened me to the racism I’ve always experienced.
But if you stand with me, you must realize that my thick skin won’t protect me from a bullet to my chest or a knee to my neck.
If you stand with me, then stand with me.