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Apr 20, 2021Liked by Abdul El-Sayed

I’m struggling with all these narratives, blaming children for their own deaths, blaming parents, neighborhoods and not addressing the terrorism in our neighborhoods at the hands of police. I don’t use the word lightly or hyperbolically. When you are afraid to drive, walk, shop, jog or even exist in public places because of the color of your skin, you are being terrorized. It’s systematic and intentional. Terrorists want people to live in fear. Police want people of color to live in fear and they make sure that we always do.

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Thanks for sharing this, Cheryl. It is a constant tension that occupies one's mind. And I'm so sorry that you and so many have to live with this. That's why we need to push back on these narratives that displace the locus of blame from where it is and ought to be.

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Apr 20, 2021Liked by Abdul El-Sayed

I agree with Marian -it’s so easy not to see what’s behind the narrative . And lose sight of a 13-year-old being shot in cold blood by the Chicago police and the mayor Rationalizing their criminal response. If this is not a time to say reimagine public safety I don’t know what is.

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Thank you, Susan. Holding with bated breath as we await the jury's verdict today. Praying for justice and peace.

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Thank You for deconstructing the story we tell ourselves. We do not remember what actually happened, we remember the story. That is how a human brain operates.

By seperating what happened; a 13 year old unarmed 7th grader, was shot by Chicago police; from our story about it, we can decipher what is real and what is not.

I love stories! I want to be conscious of them as that, stories.

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Stories--whether we acknowledge it or not--are how we understand the world around us.

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