As a 35-year-old elected white female who lives in a town where racism and injustice have been vividly present, my heart and conscience have led me to speak out.

Watching the George Floyd video literally took my breath away. I have read thousands of police reports, visited numerous inmates and dealt with many families in this community who had a loved one arrested.And yes, majority of those people were black. The fact that these people were of color only made me love the human race more. I was raised in a home on Saint Peter Street, went to public school, walked to Bank Ave. Elementary at the age of nine and was taught to not see color. Unfortunately, many people aren’t raised that way. That is not their fault. It is also not anyone’s fault that they are black.

So, are you white and prejudiced? Are you black and prejudiced? If so, are you open to change? Do you see any benefit to being prejudiced? Do you recognize that you have no control over the possibility that decades from now your own descendants could possibly include bloodlines of another race? Prejudice has and will never be the answer to anything. Instead of people dying prejudice needs to die.

We fail ourselves, our families, our children and our community when we choose to look away instead of facing the reality of what is going on in our communities. And we fail when we pass prejudice down to the next generation.

#blacklivesDOmatter

Natalie Lopez

New Iberia