So some people in America feel like Beyoncé shouldn't have spoken about all the atrocities that happened in New Orleans and she shouldn't have connected herself with the Black Panther movement. When the Civil Rights movement was in motion, a lot of people felt the same way. Some believed that people of color should except slavery, Jim Crow, failing schools that lack resources and funding. We should just except getting disrespected and exploited.

The first time I learned about terrorism, I read and saw documentaries on how people of color were treated in this country. Millions of us have lost our lives and sacrificed so much just to be treated equal and with respect. America didn't just use people of color for labor purposes, it did everything in its power to break the spirit of an entire demographic. Making us work for free wasn't enough. This country took our culture, changed our history, made us adapt to their religion. Took away our freedom, our dignity, our children, broke our family structure. Allowed illegal guns and drugs to be poured into our communities and then act like they don't know why we have the problems that we have today. To be honest people of color have never had a break. First we had to get through slavery, then we had to get through Jim Crow, then we had to adapt to a country that was taught to hate us and treat us differently based on the color of our skin. After Jim Crow this country implemented jail as the new Jim Crow. So if you get locked up for a crime then you lose the same rights people gave their lives for. As the country created systems to put millions of people of color in jail they allowed drugs and crime to take over our communities. People of color have never really had time to recover and heal from all the physical and spiritual pain, we have afflicted over the last 500 years. 

Poverty only exists because extreme wealth exists, and extreme wealth exists because poverty exists. The problem with extreme wealth is that it is created at the expense of the poverty stricken. Most of the wealth in this county came from the exploitation of other demographics of people. Let me give you a better example:  firms on Wall Street made fortunes from funding the slave trade.

Investment in slavery was one of the most profitable economic activities throughout most of New York's 350-year history. Much of the financing for the slave economy flowed through New York banks. Marquee names such as JP Morgan Chase and New York Life all profited greatly from slavery. Lehman Brothers, one of Wall Street's largest firms until 2008, got its start in the slave economy of Alabama. Slavery was so important to the city that New York was one the most pro-slavery urban municipalities in the North.

White supremacy still exists because it maintains the dominance of one culture over another. This has something to do with systems. Slavery was a system that allowed one group of people to benefit off another group of people through exploitation, death, and mental control. Classism is a system that allows a group of people that have money to be able to get better resources and have more opportunities than another group of people. The creation of classism was directly created from systematic racism, and the exploitation of people of color through slavery. White supremacy is just a system that was created to keep white people ahead of the race. Here's another example: The typical black household now has just 6% of the wealth of the typical white household; the typical Latino household has just 8%, according to a recent study called The Racial Wealth Gap: Why Policy Matters, by Demos, a public policy organization promoting democracy and equality, and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy.

In absolute terms, the median white household had $111,146 in wealth holdings in 2011, compared to $7,113 for the median black household and $8,348 for the median Latino household. (All figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Income and Program Participation.)

It's funny how America makes us forget that White people used terrorism against blacks during slavery and Jim Crow. History gives us a clear perspective what people of color have went through in this world. By the way, when I say people of color I'm talking about Mexicans, Native Americas, all Caribbean cultures. To be honest, any ethnicity because we are all of African descent. We started the gene pool and that's not opinion, that's fact. So through that perspective, this world has oppressed and disenfranchised all shades of people of color. Imagine if billions of us woke up and realized we were all family.

Last summer I was going to eat at City Island, a small island off the Bronx known for its seafood restaurants, and I got loss. I rolled the window down and asked this woman if she could give me directions. Her response was calling me a nigger and telling me to fuck off. Now this was 2015 and people still feel like this. Why racism is still alive, because evil people teach their children to hate people based off how they look. I know my people are decedents of Kings and Queens because of the unconditional love I feel in my soul. Although certain groups of White people did everything in their power to oppress people of color I still have love in my heart for all people no matter what your skin color is. My grandparents taught me that you should never judge a person based on their skin color and what they may have. You judge people based on their actions and the precedence they set for themselves. So no matter what has occurred in history I can still keep a positive perspective on all people and cultures. It's millions of people that share my perspective of love. That's why when I come across people that are racist or want to see people be oppressed, I feel sorry for them. But I will never shrink so that other people will feel enlightened. I will continue to shine and stay on my journey to greatness no matter what's in my way. People of color are the seeds of this planet, and the earth is our dirt. Even 500 years of slavery and oppression couldn't stop my people.

Imagine 500 years of all nationalities of people working together for a common good. Imagine if all the people decided that they wanted to create paradise now and not later. Imagine if we could remember that as long as you have a spirit, we are all family. Imagine if we could remember that an injustice to one of us is an injustice to all of us.

Truthfully the human race will continue to suffer until we make a choice to evolve as a unit and not individually. I wrote this piece because before you can solve the problem, you have to identify it. We will never abolish poverty and make this world better individually, when I say individually, I mean one demographic. We need all the demographics to connect and then we can change this world.