Khaila Montgomery
Mascoutah, IL 62258
An Open Letter:
There is a silent genocide occurring within the United States. One that has been happening since 1619, when it was decided that black people were less than. Stolen from our homeland, we were scattered throughout the Diaspora under a new name—slaves. We were told that we were less than the white man through media images, rhetoric, and the application of justice. Although the laws have changed, the images, rhetoric and applications of justice have not.
This is the black Holocaust. The pigmented skin of black bodies is our David’s Star. This is the Holocaust no one will remember because it is happening so gradually. But all the signs are there. Prisons have become our death camps. Those lucky enough to live outside the confines of the jails are hunted and gunned down by bands of vigilantes in police uniforms. Or worse, slaughtered by civilians who receive pardons from the press. Houses of worship offer no protection from the violence. There is no rest for us. We suffer our fate in silence because our government offers no aid. No nations have come to our rescue. We have been abandoned.
Brought to this country forcibly and forced to watch our sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, be treated as less than. We have fought, valiantly, to show the world our humanity. We made this nation. Still, we are slaughtered. If we cannot be corralled and controlled then we are murdered. We atone for sins that are not our own. We exist because this is not living. This is not freedom. This is not just.
When will the UN intervene? Will anyone see this black genocide? As long as we see isolated incidents instead of patterns of terrorism, there will be no progress. Every decade is marked with us calling out for the same rights—to be treated as full citizens of the United States and members of humanity. We fight to vote, to advance, to live. We fight for our sons and daughters to live. Underneath calls for the South to rise again and banners of the Confederate flag, we fight to live—for our lived experience to be validated.
Fort Pillow. The Redemption Massacres. Assassinations committed during Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Era. The Little Rock Nine. Trayvon Martin. Tamir Rice. Mike Brown. Eric Garner. Anyia Parker. Gabriella Navarez. McKinney Pool Party. Emanuel AME. These are not isolated incidents or even an exhaustive list. Black lives are under attack in this country and have been since our arrival. We have no rights, just empty promises on paper alongside declarations that we are just 3/5’s of man. It’s time for black voices to rise up so the world will see our genocide before all that’s left of us is a few pages of glossed over history.
Yours in truth,
Khaila Montgomery
