Name: 黒人のための手紙｜就任式ENGレター (Letters for Black Lives | Inaugural ENG Letter)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T06:30:19.000Z
Duration: 5 min 40 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

You may not have grown up around
people who are Black, but I have

Black people are a fundamental 
part of my life:

This year, the American police have 
already killed more than 500 people

Of those, 25% have been black, even though
they only make up 13% of the population

Earlier this week in Louisiana two police
officers killed a man named Alton Sterling

The very next day in Minnesota, 
a police officer shot and killed

while his girlfriend and her
four year-old daughter looked on

Overwhelmingly, the police do not face any
consequences for ending these lives

This is a terrifying reality that some of
my closest friends live with every day

Even as we hear about the dangers
that Black Americans face

our instinct is to sometimes point at all
the ways that we’re different from them

To shield ourselves from their reality, 
rather than empathizing

When a policeman shoots a Black person
you might think it’s the victim’s fault

because you see so many images of them 
in the media as thugs and criminals

we managed to come to
America and build good lives

I want to share with you
how I see things

It’s true that we face discrimination for
being Asian in this country.

Sometimes people are rude to us about our
accents,

or withhold promotions because they don’t
think of us as leadership material

But for the most part, people 
don’t think “dangerous criminal”

The police do not gun down our children
and parents for simply existing

This is not the case for our Black friends

Many Black people were brought to 
America as slaves against their will

For centuries their communities, families,
and bodies were ripped apart for profit

Even after slavery, they had to build 
back their lives by themselves

and constantly under the threat of
violence that continues to this day

In fighting for their own rights, Black 
activists have led the movement

for opportunities not just for 
themselves, but for us as well

Black people have been 
beaten, jailed, even killed

fighting for many of the rights that 
Asian Americans enjoy today

We are all fighting against 
the same unfair system

that prefers we compete 
against each other

When someone is walking home and gets
shot by a sworn protector of the peace

–even if that person’s last name is Liang–

and on all of our hopes for equality
and fairness under the law

For all these reasons I support 
the Black Lives Matter movement

Part of that support means
speaking up when I see people

in my own community 
–or even my own family–

say or do things that 
diminish the humanity

I’m telling you this out of love, because
I don’t want this issue to divide us

I’m asking you to try and empathize 
with the anger and grief of the fathers,

mothers, and children who have lost 
their loved ones to police violence

To support me if I choose
to be vocal and to protest

To share this letter with your friends and
to encourage them to be empathetic, too

As your child, I am proud 
and eternally grateful

that you took the long, 
hard journey to this country,

that you've lived decades in a place
that hasn’t always been kind to you

You’ve never wished your 
struggles upon me

Instead, you’ve suffered through 
a prejudiced America,

to bring me closer to 
the American Dream

The American Dream cannot
exist only for your children

We’re all in this together 
and we cannot be safe

until all of our friends, loved 
ones, and neighbors are safe

is a place where all Americans can
live without fear of police violence

This is the future that I want –
and one that I hope you want, too