I do not have a martyr complex. I do not want to die. I want to live a full life filled with freedom, liberty, equity, and justice. However, I also know that standing up for that full life for myself and others upsets those who might mean to do me and others harm for having the courage to do so, and that may put my safety, security, reputation, liberty, and life in jeopardy. Those are intimidation factors aimed to prevent our claim to freedom, liberty, equity, and justice. I do not have a martyr complex, but neither will I be intimidated into inaction.

“Power concedes nothing without a demand.” Words of truth spoken by Frederick Douglass, but before he uttered those words he also said that the very things we are demanding are worth and must be worth the risk of the very things we are demanding. Freedom, liberty, equity, and justice are worth our lives. What is the quality of life without these things? In my opinion that is not a life but a term of bondage and servitude; life entails so much more than that.

Safe is a relative term. It has never been safe for Black and Brown people to stand up in opposition to this system. It is not safe for Black and Brown people to merely exist in this system not challenging it; that is why #BlackLivesMatter was created in the first place. They is no action that will guarantee my safety or the safety of others, the system, the state, has a monopoly on violence. Left with no other alternatives I choose to fight for freedom, liberty, equity, and justice. Nonetheless, I do not have a martyr complex. This is merely the way the system is, especially for Black and Brown folx.