How far do we have to be pushed until we leave the comfort of our computers to actively pursue change? Have we, as millennials, become part of the problem that plagues this country?

Thursday morning, a video surfaced of yet another black body being slain by the hands of a white man. Not to belittle the life or the legacy of the man at hand, but this piece is directed toward those of us who are currently still breathing, living, thinking and reading this on a translucent screen. Nearly 600 people have been killed by police in 2016, and the year is only half over. We have people in power, cops specifically, harassing and taking the lives our peers and elders EVERY DAY around the country.

The question is — and will remain — ‘What do we do now?’

Quite honestly, I’m tired of internet activism. It has served its purpose and it’s time to move on. #BlackLivesMatter, too, has served its purpose but has become a cliché, diluted hashtag that political pundits reference when trying to gain “urban” votes. The internet does an amazing job connecting people of color around the country and even around the world, but it has yet to result in mass mobilization and concrete institutional change. Ironically, I have a problem writing this piece, as it is hypocritical for that same purpose.

We, as millennials, are selfish. There have been multiple studies saying the same, but most importantly, when introspective, we can acknowledge that we have all made decisions to strictly propel our own selfish agendas. We care about other people when it’s convenient and give more standing to our gained, worldly goods than to the thought of a better life for our children and ourselves. Our ancestors fought and died so we could have an equal chance at a better life. Sadly, we don’t realize that our apathy and lack of physical action is the culmination of years of slavery. With companies holding our employment over our heads at the expense of protest and universities threatening expulsion for the same, they’re controlling us and systematically stopping us from speaking out.

We will never gain anything if we’re not willing to lose something, and I think as millennials, very few of us (if any) are actually willing to lose anything we’ve “earned.”

What will we be leaving for our offspring? A culmination of hashtags and bragging about how we marched down [Insert Token City Main Street Name]? Well, marching doesn’t work anymore and neither does typing. As black people, there are many voices in positions of power who tend to take the role as representatives for our communities and our feelings. Hashtags have reduced black people to one, monolithic voice, typically used on the same platforms. This monotonous and gratuitous outcry of injustice makes it easy for those who want to ignore us to do just that.

As a Religion major in college, I valued my education because I always knew that Religion played a big role in the enslavement, entrapment, and colonization of people of color. Unfortunately, nothing has changed. When elders continually tell us that “things could be worse,” all we’re doing is perpetuating the same mentality. We were taught to look to the heavens and prepare for an afterlife to deter us from fighting for a better life while we’re living. Ironically, when you read The Bible, it keenly speaks of free will, the notion that human beings have the right to do as they please while they’re on Earth. It also speaks of divine intervention. The same book that tells us that “the meek shall inherit the Earth” also says that God will NOT intervene in earthly matters. Guess what? God has left us here to do what needs to be done.

We have to fight for a better life for ourselves today, tomorrow, next month, and the coming years.

I’m frustrated, as I’m sure we all are, with the current state of the United States of America. but it doesn’t come as a surprise. This is the same country that has raped and pillaged cultures throughout the world and continues to do so now, by way of the same pale bodies that grace your monthly magazines. This country was built off free labor from all of our ancestors and has left us out to dry while continually being told to pull ourselves up “by our bootstraps.” So, as most of us struggle to find or maintain work, accompanied by the visuals of our brothers and sisters being slain in the streets with no justice to avail, we’re expected to accept the fact that this country will never see us as equal and that our lives are disposable. America will no longer, continually, show us that our lives mean nothing. We “with” the voices and those “without” need to step away from our computers and do SOMETHING.

I admit, I don’t have an answer. But what I do know is that using hashtags, marching, looking to the heavens and having groups of pretentious “influencers” gather together isn’t cutting it.

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Gabriel Brown

Writing since July 2016 · 1 story contributed