{"id":239422,"date":"2020-06-03T08:03:42","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T12:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/formnutrition.com\/us\/?p=239422"},"modified":"2020-06-03T08:03:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T12:03:42","slug":"your-camera-phone-is-our-weapon-light-watkins-on-why-we-need-to-talk-about-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/formnutrition.com\/us\/inform\/your-camera-phone-is-our-weapon-light-watkins-on-why-we-need-to-talk-about-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Your Camera Phone Is Our Weapon’: Light Watkins on Why We Need to Talk About Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Light Watkins is a meditation teacher, international speaker, author of the book Bliss More<\/a> and creator of The Shine<\/a> programme. His Instagram<\/a> is a daily source of inspiration, featuring videos of Light discussing everything from meditation to self development.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Late last week, Light posted a video titled, ‘For white people who are asking what can you do?’<\/a> where he speaks passionately and eloquently about the Black Lives Matter situation. The video has now been viewed over three million times.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A friend of Form, the following account has been adapted from that video, alongside some extra original words Light has kindly provided us.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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I was 7 years old the first time I was racially profiled. A police car pulled up next to me and my brother as we were walking down the street and told us that we resembled some suspected burglars. They wanted to know where we were going and what we were doing. <\/span><\/p>\n

It happened again when I was in the mall with some friends. One of the store owners called the mall police because he thought we potentially had stolen something from his store. They brought us to the back of the store and searched us. Of course, we hadn’t stolen anything. <\/span><\/p>\n

The first time I got called ‘nigger’ to my face by a stranger was as a teenager in Washington D.C. while I was with some college buddies of mine. T<\/span>he most recent incident was two years ago. I was going to do an interview for the book that I had just written and somebody had called the police saying that I looked like I was going to break into somebody’s car. <\/span><\/p>\n

I’m not unique in any of these experiences.\u00a0What I’m describing to you is something that black people from all walks of life have to put up with on a regular basis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Use your camera phone as a weapon for good.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On top of eating our breakfast, paying bills, engaging in relationships, raising kids, being a productive citizen of the world, we have to try and not make suspicious white people feel so uncomfortable that they call the police on you. If the wrong officer had been called out on me, in any of those incidents, it could have resulted in excessive use of force and I may not be here today.<\/span><\/p>\n

The best thing to happen to racism was the camera phone. While much is made about America’s relationship with guns, I think every person of colour needs to now arm themselves with a camera. If you’re witnessing someone being brutalised and you capture it on camera, then it will help expose that moment of racism. These documents can go on to lead to the change we seek. It gives accountability to people who are out there, who are either acting up or doing the right thing. Use your camera phone as a weapon for good. And this should stand for everyone too.<\/p>\n

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Watch and act. Because being silent, when you have a voice, only perpetuates the problem. For downloading and\/or sharing to other platforms, there is a YouTube link to this video in my highlights. #georgefloyd #blacklivesmatter<\/a><\/p>\n

A post shared by LIGHT WATKINS<\/a> (@lightwatkins) on