Black Women Feel the Fate of Black Men in America; The Weight is Unbearable...
By Betti Halsell
What the death of George Floyd means to Black Women.
George Floyd, another name inscribed into the book of lives taken by police brutality. Another war for justice begins, reaches its climax, then lies dormant until another life is taken. The streets are filled with cries and groans of mothers who lost their children, lovers who lost their hearts, and families who lost their solid pillar. A noticeable spike came from the crimson cycle of murder and rage during the Floyd case; a hightened sense of fear for black men. Unsettling past experience weakened the foundation of the whole tribe, and the tremors are felt by black women and children. Feeling the impact triggers fear and worry within themselves, for the safety of the tribe. Women specifically feel a state of connectedness to the reports of murder of their men. These men being murdered look like fathers, brothers, uncles, and sons. People who once lived in the womb; that women of color look to protect.
The word that embodies the George Floyd murder, is exhaustion. Everyone from the black community is emotionally drained; seeing a man fight for his last breath as a police officer applies all of his weight onto his neck , his knee digging into his throat as if Floyd is wild animal that has been captured by a hunter. Humans do not treat other humans like animals, unless they recognize the other as something that is below them. Floyd was treated like he was lower on the food chain, lower in the class of species, inhumane. The collective are tired of seeing the justice system fail to administer a fair verdict, one that aligns with the constitution stating all men are equal. Women of all ages are tired of feeling an uncontrollable rage because their compassion envisions their beloved men in their circle pinned down unjustly, and without remorse. Black women are tired of living with the reality that their men from their culture are being targeted. No other woman in any other race has to carry that weight, and she is tired.
Another man slain in daylight with people filming does not sit well with anyone, but within Black women the future of what this means for their own intermediate family stands trial. The rage felt behind imagining the possible fate their men may face cannot be distinguished. The connection to Floyd’s death starts at the umbilical cord, one of his last words was calling out to his mom. Every Human’s first connection is with a woman. She is the first home, the first shelter, and the first one to know of your presence within her. Her bones, veins, heart grows as she becomes the perfect host for a new entity to live in. Women are the first line of communication. A grown man, on the verge of losing his life, thought about the person who gave him life to begin with. Black women give birth to black men, and they are being snubbed out with no consequence or repercussion. All of the hard work of carrying a child, raising a boy to be a man, only to be met with a fear of hired predators from the city that can take their lives is past the level of being unbearable. Black women and men are left with a common question, how can we go on?
cover image via Zee News
