AUGUST 12TH
I have now reached by 5th destination which to be honest has shocked me a lot. I’m now in North Carolina, a state in southeastern America. It was a very beautiful state there was no doubt; I had gone to the Blue Ridge Mountains and seen waterfalls and beautiful sights. It has about 17 major rivers which I was grateful to see many of. About two years ago, a tragic event had happen there. A 24 year old black man, whose car had broken down, went to seek help and knocked on a woman’s house who was surprised that he would knock in the middle of the night and therefore feared a home invasion forcing her to dial 911. Three officers had come immediately and as the young man approached the officers for help one officer fired 12 shots, 10 of them actually hit the man and killing him. The officer was charged for murder but the trial had reopened this summer when I was there and had caused massive campaigning which I got to see.
I have now reached by 5th destination which to be honest has shocked me a lot. I’m now in North Carolina, a state in southeastern America. It was a very beautiful state there was no doubt; I had gone to the Blue Ridge Mountains and seen waterfalls and beautiful sights. It has about 17 major rivers which I was grateful to see many of. About two years ago, a tragic event had happen there. A 24 year old black man, whose car had broken down, went to seek help and knocked on a woman’s house who was surprised that he would knock in the middle of the night and therefore feared a home invasion forcing her to dial 911. Three officers had come immediately and as the young man approached the officers for help one officer fired 12 shots, 10 of them actually hit the man and killing him. The officer was charged for murder but the trial had reopened this summer when I was there and had caused massive campaigning which I got to see.
As I continued travelling around North Carolina I had
noticed many southerners hanging a certain flag on their properties like houses
and cars. It was a red flag with two blue crosses that have white stars on
them (Confederate flag). In short they basically represented people who were against the act of
freeing slaves. The people who had them would have written: “Be
white be proud!” on their cars. They were proud of their racist
mentality but called it “Pride in our Southern heritage.” One day as we drove
around, we got lost and decided to stop and ask for directions and had driven
up a pathway that looked like a normal small public road way until we heard shouting
coming and saw a guy holding a shotgun shouting: “ Get off my f***ing property
you f***ing niggers” as he got closer to the car he saw my mum, aunt and little
nephew who were the only light skin people and calmed down for a second before
he give us another warning to leave immediately. As lost as we were he needed
to stop for gas and thought that might be the only safe place to stop for gas
as we were now heading towards south Virginia. When we stopped at the gas
station some of us went to the toilet, some to get food or drink but all eyes
were on us, their gaze followed our every move. We were then approached by
three white men who asked us what we were doing and we replied “Getting gas” to which they replied “ We are hunting” then
flashed their guns that were placed in their pockets, looked us up and down and
continued: “Hunting for dogs.” This had been by far my WORST EXPERIENCE ever.
What a terrible experience. I find it absolutely mind boggling how such ignorance still exists in the world today. I'm sorry you experienced such bigotry first hand. I can't say that I have ever been in that type of situation, but I appreciate you choosing to tell your story. As a CanadianI am familiar with the confederate flag and how it is ingrained in American culture. I can only imagine what it would be like seeing it for the first time and learning its legacy from your perspective. There are many initiatives now to remove it from all public buildings. I hope it becomes a relic of the past.
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