Your life should not be in danger because of the quantity of melanin in your skin!

Ironic title for someone with Stage IV melanoma, no?  But, each day headlines in America, land of the free, proves that what SHOULD be the case, is too often not.  I have been through a few things. But, I have always, in all circumstances, even in my cancer care - - NO!  Especially in my cancer care - - recognized my privilege.  I had access to melanoma specialists across the nation and beyond.  I had the money and support system that allowed me to travel for my care.  I had attained an education that allowed me to render the incomprehensible understandable.  So many in our great country have none of that, and very often that lack is directly correlated to the color of their skin.  The more melanin, the greater chance that their children have inadequate educational opportunities.  Those with brown skin suffer far greater health disparities - lack of access to medical care, lack of insurance, lack of being taken seriously when they do go to the doctor with complaints of illness, lack of outreach and help with basic needs that promote health like good nutrition, help with addiction, and mental health issues - than other groups.  Black and brown communities have almost no care for the silent killers of hypertension, obesity and diabetes.  Yet, those same folks work in jobs of greatest risk - for injury, for minimal wage, for less adherence to safety requirements, for long hours, for exposure to communicable disease.  In fact, the coronavirus pandemic has laid bare these inequities.  As of the first week of May, more than 80,000 people had died in the US due to COVID.  Of the nearly 65,000 deaths due to the virus for which race and ethnicity data was noted in the 39 states that compile such information, 17,155 African Americans had lost their lives to COVID-19.  Put another way, though African Americans make up only 13% of the population in those states, they make up 27% of the deaths.  When you flip those numbers, whites make up 62% of the population in those areas, but only 49% of the deaths.  In Albany Georgia, African Americans make up 90% of the deaths from COVID-19.  Why?  Because of this:

Those injustices, disproportionately meted out due to the greater content of melanin in your skin, should be enough, right?  But, like the graph above, they are only the tip of the iceberg.  Young men have died, their names making news banners yet again, at the hands of white men, simply because they were black.  They were all unarmed.  They were not committing any crimes.  They are dead.

Trayvon Martin                                 Darrell Cabey
Ahmaud Arbrey                                Barry Allen
James Ramseur                                 Troy Canty
Emmett Till
This is NOT an all inclusive list.

Police in this country are under paid and under appreciated.  Their jobs are dangerous and we all need their presence.  However, there are those among them who are not serving the public nor their fellow officers in good stead.  Racism, overt and perhaps that which even they leave unrecognized, guides their actions.  Black men die at the hands of these officers.  Police officers, Chiefs, Mayors, leaders of all stripes, and us - YES!  You and I!!! - must lead the way in removing these individuals along with the attitudes and prejudices that sustain them from our police forces so that ALL people of this nation attain the respect and protection they deserve.  The names that follow are black men who were shot and killed in recent years by police in this country.  Almost all were completely unarmed.  Many were already cuffed or had their hands in the air.  Police were on the scene due to reasons as various as a stalled car or because they - those who were soon to become victims of a police shooting - called for help due to domestic violence inflicted upon them.  Some were demonstrating clear signs of mental illness and erratic behavior while posing NO imminent threat.  Many had provided military service to our country.  Some of the names are familiar.  Far too many are not.

Sean Reed    Steven Taylor    Ariane McCree    Terrance Franklin 
Miles Hall    William Green     Samuel Mallard    Kwame Jones
Tamir Rice    Botham Jean    E J Bradford    Michael Brown
Michael Dean    Jamee Johnson    Darius Tarver    De'von Bailey
Christopher Whitfield     JaQuarnion Slaton    Antwon Rose
Stephon Clark    Yassin Mohamed    Fairan Berke 
Anthony Hill    Eric Logan    Jamarion Robinson    Gregory Hill
Ryan Twyman    Brandon Webber     Jimmy Atchinson    Willie McCoy
Walter Scott    D'ettric Griffin    Jemel Roberson     DeAndre Ballard
Rumain Brisbon    Anthony Smith    Robert White    Remarley Graham
Wendell Allen    Kendrec McDade     Larry Jackson    Jonathan Ferrell
Jordan Baker     Victor White    Dontre Hamilton    John Crawford
Ezell Ford     Dante Parker    Kajiene Powell    Laquan McDonald
Akai Gurley    Jerame Reid    Charly Keunang     Tony Robinson 
Walter Scott    Brendon Glenn    Samuel DuBose    Christian Taylor
Jamar Clark    Danny Thomas    DeJuan Gillory    Patrick Harmon 
Jonathan Hart     Maurice Granton    Julius Johnson    Mario Woods
Quintonio LeGrier    Gregory Gann     Akiel Denkins    Alton Sterling
Philando Castile    Terence Sterling    Keith Scott
Alfred Olango    Jordan Edwards     Stephon Clark    Michael Dean

This is not a complete list.           

Then there are those who died, while under arrest.  For crimes they may - or may NOT - have committed.  Died - while under arrest - under police PROTECTION.

Eric Garner and Freddie Gray readily come to mind.  Now, George Floyd has joined their ranks.
THIS is NOT a complete list.

Life while being black and brown does not have to be this way.  But it WILL continue in this manner until we - we privileged white people - we in the unaffected majority - make it otherwise.

Are you willing to recognize the problem?  Because that is where we must start.  Are you willing to do something about it?

For all the lives lost, for all the families who have buried dear ones for no other reason than their skin had more melanin than mine, I send you this -

- with the promise, that I see you.  I hear you.  I ache for you.  I am sorry.  I will do what I can to make your lives, and therefore the lives of everyone in this country - better.  ~ love, les