Aisha Isabelle

It is with a heart that I write this letter. Another black youth slaughtered for no apparent reason. Based on the grounds that someone else felt uncomfortable, supposedly viscerally threatened by the sight of you. Your mere presence engenders such fear in another human being that they feel the only solution to ease their fear, exorcise their inner demon(s), is through your extinguishment, your demise. You are an endangered species in this land and there is no one here to protect you, no one to put you on a list to prevent you from being hunted, no one to fine those who attempt to destroy you and place you on their mantle as a trophy. Bounty-hunted, your hide is the bounty.

Are you aware you are being hunted? You are unsuspecting prey just taking things a moment at a time, oblivious to the turmoil that surrounds you. The stew that you sit in will soon bubble over and all that would be left is your charred remains. Who is going to protect you? Who is going to speak for you when your cold blood seeps into the hollow ground? When your heart of gold has been disguised under all the sludge that has been heaped upon it?

Your value to this society is hardly acknowledged. You are an invaluable member even if you can’t see that. How can the circumstances surrounding your torment be speculated upon? It does not matter whichever way you put it. You are still being lynched; 12 years a slave, thousands more to go (or come). It does not take a politically correct or academically researched front to confirm what does not have to be told yet is not spoken about.  All we do is go around in circles trying to bite our own tails.

We have no control over what others choose to do but we are accountable for our actions. While we take accountability for our actions, the roles we have perpetuated ourselves, you *White America must also take accountability for the parts you have played in maintaining the current dynamic. There is no other alternative.

This letter is not written with the intention of laying blame on or at any particular feet. It is a call for us to evaluate ourselves, our values, honestly and openly without the fear of being ridiculed or dismissed.

Original: 2/5/2014

*The only addition made to the original. I had written this directly after hearing once again of a black person killed for sport. My entire being was shaking and I had to let this out.

I am traumatized, I am terrorized, I am terrified.

I am choosing to disseminate this after watching the video at 5AM. It’s the first thing I see today.

George Floyd. I am so sorry. I hold you in prayer and love.

Aisha.