I’ve got one memory of the day everything happened: sharp pains in my chest and shoulder, and then not being able to breathe. In that moment when I thought I was dying, it hit me: despite how good of a dude Martin was, they still killed him, man.

Turn on the news, another black man slain. They say “Its okay. Save your voice, don’t complain. This isn’t about race so stop using that excuse. Now look at this funny picture of Obama in a noose! See how colorblind we are? You’re not really black to me. Underneath, where it all matters, we both bleed red you see? So put away that race card: it aint 1962. Theres no more segregation, isn’t that enough for you?

That idiot ‘pundit’ would rather believe you and Manny were thugs than believe a twenty-year veteran cop made a snap judgment based on skin color. He identifies with the cop. If the cop is capable of murder, it means he’s capable of the same. He can’t accept that.

The real issue? He didn’t wanna be the black guy accused of “playing the race card” at a state tournament.

Blake, though? Blake takes it too far. He’s dressed as a Klansman. He’s got on the white robe with the circular red and white cross patch on the chest, and he even has the pointed hood with the eyeholes cut out. If Jus didn’t know it was a costume, he’d be a little scared.

I thought if I made sure to be an upstanding member of society, I’d be exempt from the stuff THOSE black guys deal with, you know? Really hard to swallow that I was wrong.

But before you say something “isn’t fair,” you should consider your starting point versus someone else’s.

People often learn more from getting an undeserved pass than they would from being punished.

But I don’t think knowing he’d be killed would’ve changed the way he lived, Jus. He challenged the status quo and helped bring about some change. Pretty sure that was his goal. Wouldn’t you agree?

Why try to do right if people will always look at me and assume wrong?