I CAN’T BREATHE

BLACK LIVES MATTER

𝐈 𝐂𝐀𝐍'𝐓 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄

Excuse me for a moment while I process what I’ve seen

While I go inwards and feel this immensity of grief

While I try to comprehend that I’ve just witnessed ANOTHER innocent black person murdered in the street

A father to a little girl, who won’t come home to eat

A black man that a white cop decided he should beat

Whose throat he decided deserved to be crushed under the weight of his knee

Whose heart he decided deserved to slow down to its last beat

Whose life he decided deserved to end on the concrete

𝐈 𝐂𝐀𝐍'𝐓 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄

The sad truth is not only have we seen this a hundred times before

We’ve heard these exact same words

As Eric Garner pleaded in the street

𝐈 𝐂𝐀𝐍'𝐓 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄

Yet you continue to choke away their lives

And steal husbands from their wives

Leave fatherless children in their homes

Children forced to grow up on their own

And at just six years old

Say “daddy changed the world”

𝐈 𝐂𝐀𝐍'𝐓 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄

The heaviness in my heart

Has me searching for words to speak

What can I say that will possibly alleviate the pain

For I don’t know what it feels like

To experience it this way

To have to adapt the way my life has been

Because of the color of my skin

To drive with fear of being stopped

To walk with threats

And stares from men

And so I pause and listen

Acknowledge the privilege I’ve been given

And admit that I know nothing

Amidst all this noise

I quiet my voice

Take time to educate myself

And recognize the greatest privilege

Is that I even get to have a choice

I’m learning in this silence

Not the kind that creates violence

But more-so the space

To gain perspective this time provides us

Looking at how the narrative is being fed

To separate and divide us

So why don’t we look instead

at what we can do

That will finally unite us

And just like any ceremony

As the emotion rises

The purge begins to surface

And the screams of the oppressed intensifies

There is nothing to do but open up our eyes

To lean into the shadow of our guilt

And see how we’ve been molded by these lies

Our job now is to truly listen

To their agony and their cries

To give space

For the anger and the rage

That’s been bottled up and caged

Locked away like modern day slaves

Put behind bars

And told to follow and obey

Rules created by racists

That still exist today

So I don’t come here with a solution

Or to spiritualize this revolution

Or make meaning of a situation

That I can’t pretend to comprehend

I’m not here to tell people how to communicate

What’s right or wrong to say

Because true expression starts with liberation of your own truth

Not forced by guilt and shame

And so I slow down and remain steady

Angry, sad, confused and ready

To sit down and listen

And stand up and speak

Amplifying voices

Of brothers and sisters

That can’t breathe

To tear down a system

That’s been built to oppress them

To silence and suppress them

A system that wants you lost in the semantics and distraction

Arguing with one another in comment threads

Instead of taking action

So stay focused

Don’t let your thoughts get scattered

And take a moment to consider the painful truth

That in 2020 we still don’t live in a country where

𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫
_____________________
Author: Adam Rubin

I started the project with a scanned model, and resculpted to George Floyd’s likeness. I used Zbrush, Photoshop, Maya, Ornatrix and Redshift