Transitions are the inner shifts of identity, possibility, and belief that occur to help us assimilate and adjust to changes. Some are easy, others are difficult. They don’t occur automatically, and they often require consistent and specific efforts.
As it has been a year since the murder of George Floyd, and this new wave of activism has crashed over our society, it’s important to reflect on where this wave has carried us.
How much has changed? White people, especially conservative ones, have had a huge drop-off in support for the Black Lives Matter movement as it has gained more of a presence in the wider social sphere. The statement “Black lives matter” has become politicized when I would argue that it doesn’t matter where you stand on the political spectrum, everyone should stand for a transformative justice system that is fair and equitable across the board.
America, at the very roots of its founding, politicized the existence of Black people to the point that people can hear “Black lives matter” and disagree. The people who are being murdered and incarcerated by the American justice system are Americans, citizens of our own nation who are disproportionately preyed upon by a violent system that is supposed to keep them safe.
As a society, we really must be self-reflective and critical in this time of change because there is always opportunity for everything we build to be destroyed by ignorance.
“I always tell people that to have a lasting career, you have to keep reinventing yourself,” Carter reflects. “I have never been comfortable anywhere. There’s always more for me to do. You have to stay relevant. You have to stay connected. You have to learn new skills. I’m a hustler. I always tell people, ‘If you think you can outwork me, good luck—because it’s an internal drive. Storytelling is my life.’ ”- Candi Carter
Makeup is not trivial to me. If anything moves the needle for me in my life, it’s my gorgeous war paint
Positively Purging-I welcome your feedbacks in the comments and your likes and passing the real life wisdom on to others as I embark on this new venture of “positively purging“, as I know each of these pieces represents something…
I’m struggling to understand the defund-the-police movement. What I hear in the media is that law enforcement is overworked, unappreciated and experiencing high levels of stress, which has been blamed for some unacceptable behavior. This is something we should be spending more money on, hiring more officers and reducing overtime.
If we want to improve the quality of our officers, we need to improve the quality of the individuals hired and the training received. Both of these things could be achieved by raising the requirements to apply, raising the salary to compensate for the requirements and requiring a form of recertification. What we need is more funding, not less, and I appreciate that there are duties performed by law enforcement that could be done by someone without a badge, firearm or authority to arrest.
We do this with so many other career fields to make sure that we hire and retain the best possible people, but when it comes to law enforcement, the response is punitive instead of corrective. How would police unions stop this type of reform or be against improved wages, reduced overtime, less stress and improved quality of life for their members?
