Best shampoo finally after two yrs my is at its healthiest ever and past my waist and I'm mixed blk n white n my hair used to only grow to mid back then stop I cut off all my relaxed hair and went on a natural journey 4 yrs later abba did me right but on another note so thanksMy neighbor posted this on NextDoor and I feel like it‘s worth sharing. Please take a few minutes to read.Letter to neighbors. I managed to pass a couple of these out the other morning, but I wasn't able to distribute too many. Here is a letter I wrote, feel free to copy and share.Dear neighbors,As I'm sure you're all aware, things in the United States right now are intense, to say the least. Following yet another murder perpetuated by police of a black person, George Floyd, people have taken to the streets en masse in order to protest his death and the system of racism and police brutality and excessive force that led to it. These protests were met with heavy resistance from police from the outset. Protestors, white supremacists, and police have all played a part in property destruction and arson. Citizens have been met with excessive force and brutal reactions from both state and federal governments-- protestors have been tear gassed, maced, beaten, run over, shot, and otherwise brutalized by police. I'd like to address some common schools of thought regarding events as of late.In case you are one of the people lamenting the destruction caused by the protests, let me ask you this: did you devote the same amount of woe and sorrow to the black people murdered by police? If you're talking about how unnecessary the protests are, did you also talk about how unnecessary it was for the police to kill George Floyd because they suspected him of forgery? Are you placing property and goods at a higher degree of importance than black lives? Destruction of property and theft are American forms of revolution, dating back to the Boston Tea Party-- I view this as a perfectly acceptable and legitimate form of protest to a corrupt system. I will not dictate how black people protest against a system that is oppressing and killing them, and neither should you.In case you are one to respond to "Black Lives Matter" with "All Lives Matter": one of my favorite analogies is that if one house on a block is burning, the fire department does not need to hose down all of the houses because "all houses matter". The priority is the one that's on fire. We do not have hospitals for the healthy, because the healthy do not need them. Black lives matter is a movement that is a direct response to the clear evidence that the police, for one, don't believe that black lives matter-- at least not as much as white lives. All lives can't matter until black lives do.In case you are of the belief that riots don't enact change, that violence is not the answer: what of the American revolution? What of the Boston Tea Party? What of the French Revolution? Stonewall? If violence is not the answer, do you agree that cops should not have guns? That the army should be defunded? After Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, there were 6 days of riots that came to an end with the Civil Rights Act of 1968 being passed. No revolution has come to pass without property damage, destruction, or violence. Black people have tried peaceful protests for decades without being listened to, without being heard, and without any real change to the status quo. Demanding that black people respond peacefully to being actively targeted and killed by police is misguided, to say the least. There is no peace without justice. A peaceful protest is just easier for people to ignore, and will still get people of color killed or ostracizer.If you are one to claim that not all cops are bad, just a few: Where are all those good cops? If they vastly outnumber the bad few, why are they not able to stop the bad ones from committing these heinous acts, especially now during the protests? The police originated as patrols to capture runaway slaves. The police serve no benefits to black people, only a terror threat. The police do not keep us safe- they kill more people than mass shootings do each year. They have a rate of domestic violence that is four times that of the general population. We are currently seeing images spread of police kneeling in solidarity with protestors- and then tear gassing them and beating them minutes after the photo op. Our police are fully outfitted with the latest gear to assist in terrorizing our citizens- meanwhile healthcare professionals are struggling to get adequate protection. Even if the police did protect and serve you, if they did so while murdering and brutalizing black people, it would not be worth it. Your individual positive experiences with police do not outweigh the fact that institutionalized racism is the backbone of our criminal justice system. ACAB is not necessarily a criticism of the individual, but of the job. What does it mean to be good at your job when your job is to enforce unjust laws?For those who aren't political: being apolitical is a privileged choice, because your very existence has not been politicized. Silence is a choice, and your silence speaks volumes. If you ever wonder what you would have done during the civil rights movement, during women's suffrage, during the holocaust: look at what you are doing now. Now is the time to speak up, to do what you can, to be actively anti-racist.Here is a document that compiles many resources on where to donate, what petitions to sign, and how to be involved: tinyurl.com/blmforeverIf you don't understand or disagree with any of the information presented here, I highly encourage you to do your own research on the subject. Now is the time to learn about white privilege, to learn about the horrors of for-profit prisons, to learn about defunding the police, to talk to your kids about racism, to confront your friends and family about racist remarks, to get involved. You will find a large number of resources on the subject on the internet and in book form, primarily authored by people of color. After all, who else is a more knowledgeable expert on racism than the people who experience it?Some important quotes to wrap things up:"First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection." -Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." -Desmond Tutu"Silence in the face of injustice is complicity with the oppressor." -Ginetta Sagan"In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist." -Angela Y. Davis"And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? ... It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity." -Martin Luther King Jr."Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." -Martin Luther King, Jr."Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King Jr."It's not the violence of the few that scares me, but the silence of the many." -Martin Luther King Jr."I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation." -Malcolm X"Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them." - Assata Shakur"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." - Fredrick Douglass"If someone were actively trying to kill you, is it possible to have an 'inappropriate' way of getting them to stop?" -Sonya Renee Taylor"If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country." - Malcolm XWith love,Your neighbor
