I wish I could escape my skin

There are days I want to run away and escape the life I have been given. The skin I have been given, the community I have known, and all the problems that come with being black in America. If for one year someone of the opposite race could trade places with me and walk a mile in my shoes what kind of impact would that leave? I long for the days where I can walk on the sidewalk without being bumped, or worship in public without someone calling the police, or walking into a store without being racially profiled. Sometimes it feels like you have been named a terrorist on the FBI's most wanted list. You can't go anywhere or do anything without someone targeting you. Shoot, you can't even put Christmas lights on your property without someone accusing you of breaking and entering, or my personal favorite someone yelling obscene things like "niggers live here or gotta get rid of these niggers" late at night.

IT SUCKS TO BE BLACK IN AMERICA RIGHT NOW.

There are days I wish we could trade lives like the hit reality show "wife swap". Have a full make-up team that recreates our image and gives each one of us a taste of the others world. To have an open dialog on the experience and take "walk a mile in someone else's shoe to the next level". Do you really think it's easy to black? Everyone certainly has an opinion so if it is as simple lets see if your feedback works as you are assaulted, accosted, discriminated on the job, racially profiled, denied adequate healthcare, or oppressed. To be black you would have to be freaking amazing! I mean to not go in sane after showing up in a world that hates you is phenomenal. As optimistic as I still have days where I want to trade places. To let someone else go through the motions of being me and then come back and give me a hug. lol. It's not so easy is it?! It's hard to avoid being retraumatized, its hard not to internalize what's happening around you. It's hard to respond by not responding, and allow yourself to grieve the experience. It's hard to take the blow of the impact and process through each and every attack. To avoid feelings of depression and should you become depressed fighting through it. Its easy to say what you would do when you haven't gone through it but being black is not easy and it is certainly exhausting when you think about all that we have to endure. If you ever get a chance to walk in our shoes what would you hope to learn from it? You don't get to take off the suit and reveal your true identify when things get rough. Can you honestly say you can handle trading places? If so, lets make this happen. One year of experiencing this catastrophic torture and lets see how you respond thereafter.

There are days I wish I could trade places, to escape my skin, my community and all the problems that come with it, and help people who can't see me, see things through my experience.

Thank you for reading!