After the fatal shooting of Philando Castile during a traffic stop by police last week, people were asking how I was feeling.
I had other black male friends who were writing that they felt afraid, writing that they felt sad, writing that they felt fed up, writing that they felt angry …
… and they were asking me how I was feeling.
I feel like going on.
Every one of my friends' feelings is valid. The world is not the place that we were told it would be when we grew up. It is disappointing, disheartening and depressing.
My friends who are afraid have justifiable fear. In 2016 alone, black men have been shot by police at a rate nearly 300 percent more than we are of the population. We take our lives into our hands every time we step out the door. But I'm not afraid. It's not because I'm braver or more courageous than my friends, it's that I'm just flat out sick of being afraid anymore …
My friends who are sad have understandable sadness. How do you keep your spirits up knowing that the value of your life is not the same as those around you? How can you not be sad when your life expectancy is five years less than your white counterparts? Add in racial profiling, and the prospect of living to retirement age looks less likely. But I'm not sad, because I'm flat out tired of being sad …
My friends who are fed up have a right to be fed up. Every single time this issue is raised, the deniers and detractors come out the woodwork to say wait for more data, and we don't know "all the facts" — then they want to parse the data to create new "facts," and it all becomes too much — but I'm not fed up anymore, I'm sick and tired of being fed up …