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I don’t know why, but ill never forget that one video I watched on twitter friday night. It changed me. It was like the world went too far - like there was a thin line that shouldn’t have been crossed and it was crossed.

I lost a piece of my heart this past week/ weekend.

— —

George Floyd was murdered by a police officer on Monday May 25th 2020. And the world made you know about it. Maybe there is some good power in social media. I’ve never experienced anything like this, and maybe you haven’t either. But it brought the world to its knees.

I know that i’ll never forget the emotions felt, the vivid images and videos seen from the past week. The violence, the uprising, the protesting.

Subconsciously, I never thought about it on a day to day. I don’t know if you have or have not, this is just me speaking. I am a white male. I have white privilege without even knowing it. And I’m sorry that I haven’t been as aware as I should have been.

But that changed this weekend for the rest of my life.

— —

Saturday morning I woke up scrolling through social media as well normally do. I was stuck in twitter - a platform I use the least arguably. Why? Because it was the REAL news. It was authentic. It was from perspective on the ground floor. And those videos of police brutality against honest and civil protesters I will never forget.

I sat there drinking my coffee and eventually switched over to Instagram. I see a lot of people resharing posts, stories, etc. Looking back, at that point in time I dont think people realized what was really happening.

I reshare a photographer I follows images from NYC’s riots friday night. Then I reshare some shoes that someone tagged me in. Not 5 minutes later I delete it. It was wrong. I felt that it was wrong. It was wrong to not focus on what is actually happening.

And at that moment it hit me. I couldn’t just act as if nothing happened and my weekend would be the same - because it wasn’t.

I wrote my thoughts in my notes section as I usually do. Except this time, I shared them. And I gave a call to action. I told people if they donated money to my venmo to fight against racism and racial injustice then I would match up to $1500.

— —

Gmail:

Venmo - Donation of 5.00

Venmo - Donation of 25.00

Venmo - Donation of 20.00

And it began.

— —

I gave people 48 hours, and $1,208.15 later the weekend came to a close.

I dont remember if I had an expectation of what I thought people would donate. But it wasn’t that much.

During the sharing of social media, my friend Lyrana took notice and decided to match $1,200 as well. Basically giving people 3x their donation.

We donated $3,616.30 after 48 fucking hours. The best part was, Lyrana works for Microsoft. And Microsoft matches all donations.

Double it.

$7, 232.60.

In 48 hours.

It’s real.

— —

On an extremely serious note. I will for the rest of my life, as long as I’m able to - will donate on June 1st of every year to support and help charities fight against racism.

Be Better Foundation.