The summer of 2020 was a wild one, to say the least. The murders of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, catapulted racial tension to an all-time high in our country. It seemed some police officers lost all sense of morality, and sought to kill first, and ask questions later. This was not the case in all cities and or with all police officers, but it was and is a major problem in certain portions of our country—a problem that needs to be  addressed.There has been civil unrest in our country due to the opinions of those who believe that others are less than just because of the color of our skin. There are people who believe “Making America Great Again” an effort to bring back White Supremacy, and place all minorities under sharp restrictions, some of which lead to jail and death. All of this turmoil in the midst of a pandemic, for a little extra razzle dazzle!

Creatives like myself felt helpless and voiceless. Thus, I took it upon myself, with a group of equality activists, to dramatically depict how we currently see the world. The first image shows how during the time of peaceful protests, more information was coming out about how the Black Panther Party was originally 62% women. We depicted this with images of strong and “divine” femininity—women in stilettos “standing” for their communities. The second image suggests that through all the woes of the current day, women have become more confident in their natural beauty. More women are more often rocking afros, as we are intended to!

“It’s crazy to believe I originally shot this project in July. Since then much MORE has happened within our country, such as us starting 2021 with the Capital being stormed, seized, and raided by the supporters of the Make America Great Again Campaign, right before Inauguration Day (which prompted the name change of this article). 

In the third picture I created in this project, it got deep. I created a scene where peaceful protestors face the same violence that illegal slaves experience when caught by slave catchers. I went with this concept because this is truly how it felt seeing people in my community standing up for something they believe in and while dealing with violence.

The amount of police brutality that was endured during peaceful protests is much more than what was used to maintain crowds of angry people attempting to seize our nation’s Capitol. As a group of people desperate for change with open arms, the response was tear gas and rubber bullets. It’s time to stop turning a blind eye to these things and open it up for discussion in any way possible, by any means necessary. We matter too. What will it take to get your attention? “