It has been a very eventful past 11 days as the whole country, and really the world, has reacted to the brutal killing of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers on May 25th. The tragedy has resulted in the advancement of the Black Lives Matter movement, as people all over the world are desperately calling for change in anyway they know how in an attempt to end, once and for all, systemic racism.

It is obvious by looking at the protests that are taking place all over the country that people feel very strongly about this movement and are truly dedicated to making a change. Still, one probably does not have to look very far to see that these protests have been the subject of a lot of criticism from those that feel that black people are not choosing to fight for equality the “right” way, as if there is a “right” way to express the frustration and intolerance for the system that has oppressed black people for years.

This week, several of the players on the Denver Nuggets have chosen to use their platform on social media in order to express their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. In particular, Will Barton posted a series of four incredibly thoughtful posts on Instagram on Friday in which he contemplates the things that have brought about the current climate, and his response to the resistance that the protesters have been met with this past week and a half. It’s a truly powerful message that I believe many could benefit from reading.

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Black people we have to fight for civil rights. We have begged for civil rights. We have begged the white man for civil rights. We have begged the white man for freedom. Anytime you beg another man to set you free you’ll never be free. Freedom is something you have to do for your self. Until the American Black man lets the white man know that we are really ready and willing to pay the price that is necessary for freedom, our people will always be walking around here as second class citizens or 21st century slaves. The price of freedom is death. We were bought here against our will. We were not bought here to be made citizens. We were not bought here to enjoy the constitutional gifts. So now when we ask for those things that are for Americans they look upon us with hostility and unfriendliness. Divide and conquer tactic has been used by the oppressor to keep the oppressed oppressed. The white man has done a great injustice to the black man in this country by having kidnapped our people brought us here and down to the level we’re on today. Today instead of approaching the factors that their original mistake has created. Instead of approaching these factors objectively and realistically their greatest sin that their doing now is trying to pretend that they never committed a crime that they never did anything wrong. Lincoln supposedly fought the civil war to solve the race problem & it’s still here. Same man issued the emancipation proclamation to solve the problem and it’s still here. Some more white liberals came along with the 13th, 14th, and 5th amendments and the problem still here. Some more liberals came up with what they call the Supreme Court desegregation decision and the problem is still here. Kennedy came along running for president & told blacks what all he was gonna do fo
r us if we voted for him, they voted for him almost 80% and the problem is still here. When police dogs were biting black women, black children & babies in Birmingham Alabama Kennedy talked bout what he couldn’t do because no federal law had been violated. As soon as we exploded and begin to protect ourselves and got the best of the whites then Kennedy sent for the troops.

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He didn’t have any new laws when he sent for the troops when the blacks erupted then he had at the time when the whites were erupting. So we are within our rights & with justice with justification when we express doubt concerning the ability of the white man to solve our problem and also when we express doubt concerning his integrity, concerning his sincerity. You have to confess that the problem has been here for a long time and white ppl have been saying the same thing about it for the past 100 years and there is no solution today then there was 100 years ago. Everything that’s offered doesn’t produce what it’s suppose to produce. Being defenseless & nonviolent can no longer be the only answer in the face of this cruel beast to ever take people in captivity. No where in history has America been brotherly or peaceful towards anyone. The only time America is brotherly or peaceful is when it can use you, exploit you, oppress you, or when you will submit to it. We will never get protection from the federal government. That’s like asking the fox to protect you from the wolf. The government is responsible to what’s happening to black people in this country. The president has power. You notice he don’t send no troops in to protect black peoples from these cops. Only time he sent troops in is when we erupted. He sent them in not to protect us but to protect white people from us erupting. He told us “You start looting we start shooting”. They don’t look at us as real citizens. If we were citizens we wouldn’t have a race problem. If the emancipation proclamation was authentic we wouldn’t have a race problem. If the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment to the constitution were authentic we wouldn’t have a race problem. If the Supreme Court desegregation decision were authentic w
e wouldn’t have a race problem. All of this is hypocrisy. It’s this hypocrisy that has been practiced by these liberals for the past 400 years that compounds the problem and makes it more difficult instead of eliminating the problem. We need a black revolution. When you study the historic nature of revolutions, the morals of a revolution, the objective of a revolution, the results of a revolution,

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and the methods you used in a revolution you will see what it’s all about. Look at the American revolution. In 1776 that revolution was for land. Why did they want land? Independence. How was it carried out? Bloodshed. The only way they could get it was bloodshed. Wasn’t no love lost wasn’t no negotiation. You don’t have a revolution without bloodshed. We can’t be afraid to bleed for one another anymore. America has sent us all over the world for wars and we’ve bleed for them. But when it comes to innocent men getting choked to death by racist cops, our own churches getting bombed by racist, innocent black people getting murdered because we’re black we won’t bleed for our own? How we gonna be nonviolent here for hate against our own people but violent when we go to war for this country against people we don’t even know? How do we justify this? If violence is wrong in America violence is wrong abroad. If it’s wrong to be violent defending black women, black children and black babies, and black men then it’s wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad in defense to it. & if it is right for America to draft us and teach us to be violent in defense of it then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country. How are we real members of this country if there’s a race problem? We are denied human rights and civil rights. As long we keep accepting temporary solutions the racism problem will continually go unsolved. We will never get real freedom or equality without destroying this country, without destroying the present political system, without destroying the present economic system, and rewriting the entire constitution. It will be a complete destruction of everything America supposedly stands for before u
s black people are looked at as equal. I’m just broken up about recent events with our people and that racism is still an issue smh. We’ve went to school, voted, protested peacefully, asked peacefully, marched peacefully, gave peaceful speeches, and had conversations. They mad we looting but I say anytime you live in a society supposedly based on law and it doesn’t enforce its own law because the

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color of your skin then I say that those people are justified to resort to any means necessary to bring about justice where the government can’t give them justice. I don’t believe in any form of unjustified extremism but I believe that when a man is exercising extremism in defense of liberty for human beings it’s no violence. Patrick Henry said liberty or death. We’re living in a time of extremism, a time of revolution. A time where it has to be a change. People in power have misused it and now there has to be a change and a better world has to be built. The only it’s gonna be built is with extreme methods. I for one will join in with anyone. I don’t care what color you are as long as you want to change these miserable conditions on this earth. What’s next? What else y’all want from us? This is ridiculous. I’m no hero, no role model, nor civil rights leader. I’m just a black man from America speaking my mind on a racist society.

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Speaking for myself, I was extremely moved by what Barton had to say. During a time in which we should all be reflecting on how we can better understand the injustices that have plagued our country for far too long in order to allow us to make true change, Barton’s words can really help us to better achieve this goal.