My name is Frederick Douglass, a former slave, an entrepreneur, and an anti-slavery activist.

This is to the white men who still believe America should be the way it used to be.
The people who fear anyone who is not like them.
The people who believe America should only be one race.
The people who deal with fear by acting out in violence.
The people who believe they are superior because of the Nation's past.
The people who believe it is okay to disrupt the peace.
And to the people of my own kind.
I am passionate about this issue because I am an African American.
When I was little, we were fighting against slavery then and you are all fighting for your lives
now.
Everyone wants equality not equity.
How does it make you feel that it has been nearly 300 years and racial discrimination is still
happening?
Did the civil rights movement not teach you anything at all?
Did Martin Luther King Jr die for absolutely no progress?
He was born to teach us something, and that is to never give up.
Just like Rosa Parks,
Just like Barack Obama,
Just like Harriet Tubman,
Just like Langston Hughes,
Just like you.
You are the future,
Do not spend it trying to get even.
Spend it influencing others to do good to each other,
Love each other.
Everyone deserves a chance at life and a happy one at that.
I know what I missed out on as a child and that was freedom and the hope to be free.
To my people, now that you are free from slavery, you are still being mistreated, you are still
being neglected, treated unfairly.
You have started a movement meant for gathering people to showcase that we do matter.
Our voices, your voices need to be heard.
Although all lives matter, we need to focus on black lives right now.
This is not about one moment, this is about years, and lives, and people we are looking after
and protecting and getting justice for.
Remember the names of those that died by the hands of officers who are meant to protect us.
Sandra Bland, 28
Freddie Gray, 25,
Denzel Brown, 21
Tony Robinson, 19
Trayvon Martin, 17
And so much more.

To the rest, you should be ashamed of yourself.

This country is about everyone, not just you, or your mother, or your siblings.
We are the future and our children hold the future for this country.
If a black person and a white person commit the exact same crime, who do you think is more
likely to be imprisoned and judged for what they had done?
Obviously it is not the person who looks like a leader of this country 300 years ago.
When I wrote the hypocrisy of American Slavery in 1852 I said whether we turn to the
declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems
equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly
binds herself to be false to the future.
Now that I am standing before you, reading this speech, I can only say that America is indeed
false in the future.
To society, there is a lot of negative.
Black is synonymous with ghetto,
It is synonymous with loud,
It is synonymous with lazy.
Then it is used against everyone that looks like those that portray those stereotypes.
I have met so many Black Americans who want to separate themselves from Black Americans
because they think that being too tied up to these stereotypes makes them ghetto, loud or lazy
and they do not want to be apart of that.
We should be on a much more unified front.
There is nothing wrong with being African American, and you need to teach yourselves and your
children that hate will get them nowhere.
Regardless of your ethnicity or race, and anywhere you are from, you should be proud of who
you are.
Without a struggle, there is no progress.
How long do we have to struggle to get progress?
How long do we have to protest, fight, cry over loved ones who have been murdered, watch and
stare, sit and throw our hands up because we have no way of getting our voice heard to make
progress?
If it ends up being forever, then so be it. I will never stop fighting for what I deserve.
Neither should you.
We are being denied our dignity and basic human rights.
We are humiliated on a daily basis.
We are black,
And we are strong.
I ask all my brothers and sisters to stand up to this dehumanization, and win the justice we
deserve.

Sources

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h3736.html
http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/unarmed/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-farbota/black-crime-rates-your-st_b_8078586.html
http://blacklivesmatter.com/getinvolved/