It feels like Black people were running for their lives from racist terror only to run into the murderous face of COVID-19, only to start running for their lives from COVID-19 only to run into the murderous face of racist terror.

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) May 26, 2020

When will it stop?

When will the senseless treatment of black people come to an end?

It’s not just about what has happened with a phone call in New York City to Christian Cooper or the tragic murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a police officer who’s supposed to protect and serve. It’s more than just the vastly underreported numbers of COVID-19 cases within low-income communities, with millions denied access to health care facilities simply because of their race. It goes beyond centuries of policies systematically designed to oppress minorities.

The time has come for a call to action to our local representatives and to those in Congress that enough is enough. While the expectation of the mainstream is for us to cry, protest and hashtag, it’s the resiliency of those who seek justice that leads to change. It’s the voices of a generation who witnessed  the lynching of Emmitt Till to a generation that saw Rodney King beaten to the ground in 1991. Now, it’s to the generation that wears “I Can’t Breathe” on taped mouths that say no more to continued injustice.

No more will we allow people to call the police out of racial fears without consequences. Accountability must be the standard, not the exception. We must take a stand for the generations to come, through legislation and letting our voices be known.

It’s more than about obtaining justice, it’s about setting up a system in place that prevents the next tragedy from ever happening in the first place.