![]() In February 2020, the Anti-Defamation League released a report that said the white supremacist movement’s targeting of college students began increasing in January 2016, and has continued ever since. I didn’t anticipate the mental and physical toll it would take. ![]() I always knew being Black in America would mean my life would be more challenging. I’ll never forget that feeling of hopelessness, exhaustion, anger, and indescribable anxiety that I could no longer suppress. I sat in my car for the next several minutes crying uncontrollably. I just remember how the report made me feel. I don’t remember the details of this incident - partially because racially motivated attacks and killings seemed to be happening on such a regular basis. One morning, as I pulled into the parking lot of my job, a report came on the radio about a Black college student being physically attacked on his school campus by someone who referred to him using a racial slur. I’d known about racism for as long as I could remember, but something was happening to me. One month later, Mike Brown was killed and his body was left in the street for the world to see - for four hours - like he wasn’t a human being. We were heartbroken and angry with the verdict, but we weren’t surprised.Ī year after Trayvon’s verdict, Eric Garner was killed. I remember looking at him and thinking, he could have been Trayvon. My friend was a 20-something-year-old tall, Black man at the very beginning of his career as an attorney. ![]() A year later, I sat with a friend and watched news coverage of his killer, George Zimmerman, receiving a not guilty verdict on murder and manslaughter charges. I was 22 years old when Trayvon Martin was killed.
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