Search Term - "Black People"

WHY DO I HAVE TO SPECIFY I’M LOOKING FOR BLACK PEOPLE WHEN I NEED A PICTURE THAT REPRESENTS US?!?!

And, let’s not forget that even when we do specify “black women {insert activity}”, “black women”, ”black family”, “black people”… somehow white people still pop up after the scarce number of results present themselves as representation for us. Somehow, “black and white” is still a product when searching terms specific to “Us”. Can’t have anything specific to just us, huh?

I’m so tired of searching imagery for ANYTHING in life and not being represented when simple terms are entered. Why can’t I be represented and included in “women writing”, or “

Every time I post, the amount of time it takes me to find a stock image close enough to the topic of choice is absolutely ridiculous. I’d love to make an effort to build a portfolio of stock images just for black people. That has always been a dream of mine and one day it’s going to come true; an online database of imagery for BLACK PEOPLE.

I’m really just tired of everything going against us. I’m tired of turning on the tv or scrolling through social media to see yet another white person has called the cops on someone black and another police officer has MURDERED someone black while they’re begging for their lives.

This is too much… on top of living in the middle of a pandemic terrified of when they’re going to say we have to go back to work. There’s too much stacked against us and not enough people that care about our safety and well being and it’s exhausting. From being treated like guinea pigs to having our lives disregarded like animals, when does it stop?

Short answer… no time soon.

I just saw this post on IG yesterday that showed a black father and son walking down the street and a white lady clutching her purse. The little boy yells back “We don’t want your purse, lady,” as they continue to walk and not even think about bothering her or her “precious” bag.

Our lives are more important than your material things that we don’t even want! We have no desire to steal from you to get ahead! We work HARDER than you just to be recognized, and EVEN HARDER than that to be considered competent. Yet we still get called “gorilla”, “ghetto”, “hoodlum” when we’ve made it and someone finally sees us as an equal.

WE ARE HUMAN!

If you haven’t seen “A Time To Kill”, it’s a really AMAZING movie. Not for the faint of heart but a beautiful story that I believe is based on real life events that are not specified, about a black father that stands up for his young black daughter after being brutally beaten, raped, and attempted to be lynched by two grown white men just because she was walking home with some groceries. Some may think, why was she walking home alone where that could happen. Shame on you! Your thought should have been why did those primal grown ass white men decide to bother that little girl that was minding her business?!

Anyway, at the end of the court trial during closing remarks, the lawyer that represents the black father has everyone in the courtroom close their eyes and tells the story of this little girl and how she was abused, lynched, and tossed away like trash when the branch broke sending her body crashing back to the earth. Right before ending the story he tells them to imagine that little girl being white…

Instead of seeing us as different, think about how you’d feel if your white husband, brother, uncle, nephew, or son were strangled, beaten or shot to death… would you care then? Would you fight to stop the violence against us then?

When will they put themselves in our shoes?!?!

Short answer… no time soon.

Sad part is all we ever really wanted was to be able to search for images and have someone that looks like us pop up in the results.

Sidebar… before somebody jumps down my throat for that last line… I know we want way more than that… it’s a metaphor.

In times like this, we have to continue to push forward the way our ancestors did. They didn’t give up and look how far we’ve come. No, we’re still not seen as equals but one form of slavery was taken down. Keep fighting until ever rendition of it that they can come up with is destroyed and we can finally be free.

Until then… Be D.O.P.E. protect and educate your family the best you can.