David McAtee, August 3, 1966, a 53-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot by the Kentucky Army National Guard in Louisville during protests over the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor(June 1, 2020). George Perry Floyd, October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020, was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit $20 bill. Treason “Sean” Reed, 1999 – May 6, 2020, Thousands watched a man live-stream his own fatal police shooting. The officer won’t be charged. Michael Brent Charles Ramos, January 1, 1978 – April 24, 2020, Austin Police Report Confirms Michael Ramos Was Fatally Shot, Says Officer Considered a Car A Weapon. Breonna Taylor, June 5, 1993 – March 13, 2020, a 26-year-old African-American woman, was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment on March 13, 2020, when white plainclothes officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and many more have either been raped, shot, stabbed, abused or assaulted by white supremacists and or police officers. From the beginning, African Americans have been faced with so many obstacles and challenges over the years and the fight is not over, actually, it will never be over. Every day is an opportunity for people who despise African Americans to kill, steal and destroy us. Sadly, the world that one may live in is and will always be against African Americans when all one may ever want in life is to be joined together, united as one nation.

But knowing all that there is to know and experiencing everything that these specific individuals are capable of, it is now publicly heard that they will never see African Americans as an equal nor as an individual. From shootings on the street, from the unnecessary force put on by police officers to sexual assaults towards miners/adults to vandalizing, maulings, strangling of the neck, to verbally/spiritually attacked, African Americans, according to many, have always had a target on their back and it’s up to others to realize what is happening to the Black community and take a stand. 

According to https://www.mhanational.org, over 13.4% of the U.S. population is Black or African American; and for those who do, 16% reportedly have a mental illness in the past year. Because most African American’s mental instability originated from the oppression of being enslaved, it doesn’t come as a shock that Black people today suffer from depression or PTSD. There will come a time in a young black persons’ life where they will be faced with something or someone that will try to put a barrier around their success, education, mental health, finances, and spiritual well-being, but being the strong, independent human beings that we are, we will always be ready for the fight that may come our way. 

Anybody and everybody at some point in their life has watched the news or has heard of an African American young man and or woman either being wrongly convicted or has been harmed in some way, shape, or form by a racist male or female. The “American dream” is believed to be achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, rather than by chance. In today’s world, it is molded/engraved into its minds’ that we are to act a certain way, talk a certain way, dress a certain way and behave a certain way and if African Americans are not to do accordingly, then there will be repercussions. For example, inexperienced police officers, or as some like to say, racists police officers, wrongly persecute African Americans and Hispanic-Americans just because of the color of their skin. Now most cases in today’s time are filled with disappointment, tragedy, and heartbreak where most are murdered and abused out of cold blood, but hopefully, in due time, all of that will change.

One may think of the American dream, one may interpret free reign, freedom of speech, equal opportunity, and equality. These things are all of what many may feel or believe any and everybody should have, but others may feel otherwise. Society may claim that everybody is naturally birthed with the rights and opportunities as the minority, but because of the way the world has out-casted certain ethnic groups, it is difficult to picture or imagine what the American dream looks like, but what is known is that there will always be a rainbow at the end of the storm to shine brightly and strongly as it can and that is how everyone will always and forever picture life at this very moment. Knowing that the system/world will always be rigged to make African Americans fail and not succeed. But even when all the nay-sayers are in the ears of the wise, know that these individuals will always come on top and those who were once doubting, will be secretly shining a light on their lives and won’t be able to share the opportunities and success they have to offer.