Hello, A10 fans. With the movement and protests about Black Lives Matter going on throughout the world right now, I thought it would be important to listen to what the movement is all about from the Black community perspective and take a break from the A10 coverage that we are used to.
We at A10 Talk support the Black Lives Matter movement and want to provide a voice to our fans of the Black community to tell us what it means to them. I hope this piece from one of our readers helps those of you wanting to know more about the movement.
The post below is from Jerrod Williams, who is an alum from Rhode Island. Please read and share to your friends and family.
Thank you for being the best fans in the country!
-Chris
————————————————————————————————————————————
As a black man in the United States of America, I have always felt that I was treated differently, not just me, but my race as a whole. Although the laws of this country have made the races “equal”, the people enforcing these laws have not made it feel this way. That is why I was not surprised when I saw the news about what had happened in Minnesota. Another black life taken by police violence, but instead of allowing Floyd to just be another statistic, our movement staged mass peaceful protests around the country to allow our voices to be heard and the memory of Floyd to be preserved.
I am very proud of everyone who participated in these protests, and am happy that the reaction has been so widespread that there have been protests in all 50 states. On Monday I participated in my first protest in Providence, RI. Our peaceful protest was then turned into a riot by nightfall, the city resembled a war zone and many black owned businesses were completely destroyed by these mostly white rioters. The actions of these mostly white rioters have been just as detrimental to the black community as the actions of the 3 officers that watched while George Floyd was brutally murdered. However, these riots should not overshadow the good that has been created by the peaceful protests of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The next day after I participated in these protests I woke up to all my social media feeds being dominated by black squares. The purpose of these black squares was to end racism by blacking out social media for a day, the efforts of these black square posters were very brave, but I do not believe that they accomplished their goal of ending racism. Because on Wednesday when I woke up, Trump was still president, proving that racism was not ended by the posts. Donald Trump, the face of racism in this country tries to manipulate black voters by claiming that he has lowered our unemployment rate to the lowest it has been, and claiming that he has increased funding to HBCUs. However, I refuse to be manipulated by this accused rapist and instead will be voting for Joe Biden this November.
This entire week has been empowering to be a black man. The streets of major cities, and the feeds of social media have all been flooded by our movement. With the help of my brothers and sisters in the Black Lives Matter movement, I hope that systematic racism will be decimated and police reform will be put in place to make sure that more of my brothers and sisters are not senselessly harmed by police violence.
Thanks to A10 Talk for allowing me to use their platform. #BLM
– Jarod Williams
