As black people beg not to be shot by vigilantes chasing down a jogger in a neighborhood, you scream for your right to cut hair, eat at a restaurant, and roam freely in defiance of state orders intended to slow the spread of an infectious disease that has killed more than 70,000 people in just over two months.
As blacks in America argue that black lives matter too, the very people that argue that all lives matter break laws in open defiance of state orders, marching on capitols with enough firearms to fight a small war. They berate police officers, doctors, nurses, and others who are there only to protect those very protestor's health and safety. And even as they brandish their weapons, and spread a disease that will kill people, they have no worry of being chased and gunned by police or independent actors.
This is white privilege. White privilege is being able to break laws without the worry of receiving the death penalty at the hands of the police. White privilege is protesting by standing on the steps of the state capitol armed with machine guns. White privilege is knowing that you will go home and sleep soundly at night after you demand your right to infect other people because you want to live the way you did before there was a pandemic.
The murder of Ahmaud Arbery is a continuation of the violence that has been perpetrated against blacks in America for 400 years. It's a reminder of the vigilantism that was responsible for the death of Emmett Till. To be black in America is to risk your life whether you go on a jog, get pulled over by a cop, or simply sit on your couch in your own home. Being black in America means that your life is at risk when you live your daily life, that same daily life that white Americans are arming themselves to the teeth to get back to. So as you demand your right to live as you'd like, we continue to demand our right to exist, because black lives matter.
