Trust your own eyes and try to see the truth from a Black person’s perspective

This is the fight. There are a lot of things I could put down with pen and paper about what I have dealt with personally. But the fight is also about what’s going on today — and what has been going on for decades. It’s easy for people to say this or that about the Black movement, which has been on display everywhere in recent weeks. But being a Black man and witnessing time and time again when another Black person is murdered definitely hits home.

I always put my father, my brothers and myself in George Floyd’s scenario. The feeling that gives me is unfathomable. Having to act a certain way so I’m not perceived as a problem or a threat is something no member of society should ever have to think about. As a Black man and as a human being, I’m just standing up for my people for what is right.

Any one of us who saw video of the deaths of Philando Castile, or Floyd, or any of the other people wrongly killed by police officers should feel angered, hurt, frustrated and betrayed by those who are supposed to protect and serve — no matter our race. No human being has the right to take another human being’s life away, and especially not in the way we’ve all seen in videos that have gone viral. We would say the same about the many other unjustified deaths that were not captured and shared online.

This movement has some people feeling uncomfortable, angered and bothered because they are not willing to accept it for what it actually is, or to accept that there is truth behind it. These people reject the idea that it’s a fact that Black men, women and children are being senselessly murdered. They are not willing to have an open mind or try to see things through our eyes.

But there is no other way to look at it. So we are asking people to try to wrap their heads around how I and every other person of color feels, and have felt so often throughout our lives. If you believe what you have witnessed with your own eyes in the videos, and if you have done your research on people who have lost their lives to senseless acts by police, then there should absolutely be no debate.

I will continue to fight for my race — the human race — until I take my last breath. So I ask that you would have conversations with your family, friends and community, and then take action to bring about real change. Make this world a better place.

Khiry Shelton is a Sporting Kansas City forward and a member of the Major League Soccer’s Black Players for Change organization.