Interview by JustUsOne
The statement is clear. The fact of the matter, this is the statement that will define 2020 in America for the rest of history. Our grandchildren will look back on these times and ask us to tell them stories. Those stories will most likely consist of a world that no longer exist. The irony of the statement is in the Graff world a piece like this called catching a heaven.
Sauté - What was the inspiration behind the piece beyond the obvious?
Honesty, I feel that there’s too much to say, with not enough words to describe how I feel about this topic.
It’s all about the message and it’s realization that there’s something truly wrong within our society and government when the same injustices persist throughout the decades continuously without a real change. (Meaning whats happening in the streets, not the fake facade broadcasted by mainstream media).
As a minority growing up with minorities, I’ve seen and experienced first hand the hypocrisies and injustices of being just that, a “minority’”. Living through the LA riots amongst many other situations that fit in the same category in between, its discerning to see the reoccurrence of the same prejudices throughout the decades past around the world.
I just hope to spark the minds to something deeper than thinking it’s the deep state and or “the agenda”, (which I keep hearing a good amount of people quick to label) it really has nothing to do with it, people are being mislead into thinking thats it’s the governments/police problem when in fact it spawns from the people that live together on the streets everyday that deal with the prejudice. The blind lead the blind, and comfortability makes it all too easy to blame someone like the cops or politicians, when in fact it’s themselves they need not to blame but to address the situation and stand up for the rights in which we were given and make change within.
If the hierarchy decides that they want to play marionette to the mass population and run their agenda, who else but the “People” can stand up and make change happen. I’ve been hearing people say, “Well, California doesn’t have police like other states and we’re lucky a majority of authorities are minorities themselves,” really have no clue to what’s really going on on the streets because injustices happen everyday regardless of skin color and what is hypothetically correct, in California or anywhere else for that matter.
Unfortunately I know the system all to well, and the hypocrisies that are embedded in the system. The people are the only ones that have the power to abolish the indifferences that have been engraved in our system for centuries. Maybe technology is making examples of the injustices more prevalent, but realizing the situation is only the half of it. Conforming, building and shaping is what the people need to be concentrated on.
With that being said, “I can’t breathe” has obviously been coined by George Floyd and his untimely demise, but I feel the term is more on a universal level of awareness to the masses. If situations don’t change the feeling of suffocation to our rights and beliefs will continue to be asphyxiated.