Personal Narrative: I Am A Black Woman

I just arrived home after being at a conference for teachers for several days. It was a great conference in general but for me, it was gut wrenching because I learned a few things that I was not expecting to learn. I am invisible in the eyes of most Americans. On July 7th I awoke to information that there were 2 documented accounts of yet another unarmed black men being killed by police officers. I learned this information via text and then from intermittent news coverage and comments from my friends on social media, most of whom where African American. I was devastated. Why, because I am a black woman, my husband is a black man and we have a black child. I could see myself and those I love in the agony and anguish these families were facing. I could empathize with the fear and anger of a community of people who feel they must look over their shoulder. At the conference however, I heard nothing. No other teacher was talking about it. Many of my non-black friends, peers and family were not commenting about it on social media. With the exception of black people, a few advocates and the media, the country was silent. I sat in agony at the conference most of that day, and not one person asked me how I felt about it or discussed how they felt about it. My pain, or the idea that …show more content…
Officers of the law, I see you. I see your families. I feel your pain and fear. I support you in your work and in your loss. America, I understand your anger. I agree with your loyalty to this group. I empathize with your fear and anger. I understand your desperate attempts to want to justify and blame. The question I have is, do you see me? Can you feel my pain? Can you empathize with the paralyzing fear that this could happen to me or to someone I love? Do you know what it is like to be silenced in this despair, or worse, blamed for expressing it? Do you even want to