White People: I Need For Y’all To Do More Than Run

News of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder sent chills down my spine. I thought of the many times over the last 22 years, since I’ve been a resident of my city that I have casually walked in my neighborhood (I don’t run, unless someone is chasing me, or Black Jesus says so!). As I have learned various neighborhoods over my tenure here, I’ve even cut through neighborhoods that weren’t mine, for shortcuts, and to think that someone could just mow me down, simply for the color of my skin, is daunting.

Now due to Covid-19, and everyone wearing masks, coupled with eight weeks without a proper haircut, between my face mask and my skull cap, I’m sure that I freak most white people out when I go out in public. It literally becomes a split second decision between protecting myself from Covid-19, or the crazy ass white person who may make me target practice out of fear, or racism, or possibly both.

But Covid-19 wasn’t an issue when Ahmaud Arbery went out for his run in Brunswick, Georgia on February 23, 2020. It was simply a case of running while black. You see his murderers, whose names I refuse to utter or type, developed a bogus story of break-ins (no police reports or 911 calls corroborate their stories). They decided it was their white privileged duty to chase and perform a “citizens arrest”, which is a ridiculous law that Georgia and about 40 other states have. Because of their…