Black lives matter, but what happens after the marching and protests end?

I have heard from lots of people from Sacramento, throughout America and from around the world regarding the current challenges facing our country. I have heard from white friends, black friends and a host of beautiful, diverse people I have been fortunate to know. I have heard them say that now is the time to imprint our will on this American experiment and realize the truly inclusive vision that this great nation was founded upon.

America has once again been rocked by the brutal violence inflicted upon a helpless, non-threatening black man by our sworn-to-protect-and-serve law enforcement. George Floyd’s killing was indeed heinous and it follows a history of brutality inflicted on black people by American institutions of power.

I do not make these statements as a bystander, but as someone who has been, and will continue to be, targeted for extinction. I have been targeted when pulled over at gunpoint by the police. I have been targeted when standing up to financial institutions for unjust and even illegal lending practices. Even as an elected official, I have been targeted for taking a stand against institutional injustices.

This is often the case when you speak out against racially oppressive institutions that were put in place to help America transition from one type of slavery to another. The system is intolerant of vocal opposition to systemic oppression of black people, which we know exists and have yet to correct.

For years, black people have felt the heavy and abusive hand of financial discrimination from lending and banking institutions. We have been routinely and disproportionately victimized by our criminal justice system, unfairly marginalized by our educational system and labeled as less than 100 percent of a person by our own Constitution.

Our political institutions have come up woefully short in addressing these structural deficiencies, which are not supposed to exist in a fair, free and democratic society.

Black people have never been completely free in America. Instead, we have been systematically and intentionally marginalized as a people. Priorities of black people are routinely watered down by including them along with the priorities of other, less impacted interest groups.

Black Lives Matter! Yet we refuse to confront the issues that directly oppress us. All of America should have a voice and every issue we face as a nation should result in positive and sustainable change. The time has come for the black agenda to top the American agenda.

Hasn’t the black community paid a price at least equal to that of any group in America? Don’t black people qualify as true Americans, entitled to full participation in the American dream?

When the marching stops, what will you do?