You are black. You are in a no-win scenario. You need to follow the law to stay alive. Even then you may be murdered in broad daylight by the same people you're supposed to trust. You know people who don't have to worry about the same things you do.

Just in the past few months there have been several high profile injustices.

• You are George Floyd. You are thrown to the ground. You are not resisting. The police are sitting on your legs, your chest, and your neck. You cannot move. You can't breathe. You are being murdered in front of bystanders who are powerless to intervene. If they intervene, they will be shot or go to jail. And, importantly, you will still be just as dead. You are lucky that the bystanders have video recording devices to prove that the police report claiming you resisted arrest is a lie. Too bad the district attorney isn't interested in evidence against police. All four officers involved and the district attorney should be charged.

• You are Christian Cooper. You enjoy watching birds and are a member of the local birdwatching club. You are minding your own business in a public park but, unfortunately, witness a white woman with her dog running loose. You know that a loose dog can be dangerous to people and wildlife and is against the law. So you ask the white woman to follow the law and put her dog on a leash. You're smart enough to record the event while the white woman is dumb enough to proudly exclaim that she's calling the police and claiming that she's being threatened by a black man, you. It's unfortunate that a white woman isn't accountable for lying to emergency services. You are fortunate you have a recording device so you can prove she's lying. You are fortunate the police didn't decide to ignore your video and kill you that day. It turns out she works in the finance industry. You know the finance industry. It's well-known for lying to people and getting away with it. Or, when they're caught, they get a fine far less than their profits from lying. It's unfortunate that being black means you can't get away with lying. Amy Cooper should be charged with attempted murder: she knew a police response could be deadly, why else would she have called?

• You are Ahmaud Arbery. You're jogging along a road. Some white folk decide to hunt you down like livestock. They hunt you down and kill you. The district attorney swept most of your murder under the rug. An accomplice has a lawyer who's stupid enough to put a video up to claim it exhonorates the accomplice of the video. You're fortunate the accomplice had a recording device and you're lucky the accomplice's attorney is stupid, but you're still just as dead.

You are black. You have to work harder to achieve workplace promotions.

You are black. Even when you follow the law you are likely to have evidence planted against you.

You are black. The people around you tell you that you need to vote to fix the system but most felons are not allowed to vote. Too bad more blacks are felons as a percentage of the black population than any other race's population of their own. To quote the Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2010:

• Black non-Hispanic males, with an incarceration rate of 4,749 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents, were incarcerated at a rate more than 6 times higher than white non-Hispanic males (708 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents) and 2.6 times higher than Hispanic males (1,822 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents)

• An estimated 226 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents were incarcerated nationwide at midyear 2018. Blacks were jailed at a rate of 592 per 100,000 black U.S. residents (table 2). American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIANs) had a jail incarceration rate of 401 per 100,000 AIAN U.S. residents. Whites (187 per 100,000 white U.S. residents) and Hispanics (182 per 100,000 Hispanic U.S. residents) were jailed at similar rates.

You are black. People around you are proud about the second amendment and that it exists as a check against the government. The second amendment gives you the right to defend yourself with a gun. Too bad felons aren't allowed to own a gun. DO NOT ATTEND A PROTEST WITH A GUN.

You are black. You are oppressed in a no-win scenario. It's time for that to change and you should participate. Black lives matter.