 When I was 12 years old, me and my best friend and his little cousin were, we were playing tag in the front yard, just enjoying the good weather that we get in the Midwest every once in a while, just having a good time off from school. And that day was the first day that I truly experienced what it's like being black in America and being a threat, even when you have no reason to be a threat. And I'll never forget three police cars pulled up and they stopped, they frisked us. We had our hands on a car because they heard that there were break-ins in the neighborhood. So of course, three black men running around, they couldn't possibly, you know, live in this house. They could, they come possibly just be being kids. They have to be up to no good. And this is an experience I've never really opened up and talked to anyone about. As a matter of fact, I was so traumatized by it that I didn't even tell my parents for like, for years, probably nearly a decade. And unfortunately, the things that other African-American people have dealt with, they almost made me feel like that experience wasn't brutality like it, like, oh, you know, you know how it is, but you know what, that's not right. That's not how it is. That's not how it should be. Your excuse shouldn't be, oh, we told the nine-year-old boy to stop running and he didn't. Why do you need three police cars for three black men, black, not even men, three black boys under the age of 13 years old? I'll never understand that. Luckily, my friend's parents were home and we were able to go back to playing, but nothing would ever be normal in this country for me ever again because at that moment I learned that it does not matter who you are, what job you have or the people you know because in that moment all they see is the color of your skin. This past week has been really difficult. It's been a trigger for what I experienced at 12 years old and I guess all those emotions, all those feelings, all those anxieties have bubbled up because I suppressed them for so long and I've been really sad, really, really hard to focus on work, but I'm being honest with you, I can't focus on programming when my brothers and sisters in my community are being brutalized and murdered and incarcerated. And when I look at what other black people have gone through like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and so many others, I think back to when I was 12 years old and how that experience could have been a lot more traumatic and I just wanted to share this with you because it could happen to anyone, any black male or female. It doesn't matter who you know, what job you have, how much money you have. I've been wanting to make a video about being a black software engineer and because of what's been going on the past week, the past few weeks, I thought it would be important to not just talk about my experiences as a software developer, but my experiences as a black man and what we've been fighting for. We've been fighting for equality, for safety. We've been fighting for educational resources, a better life and ultimately, we've been fighting to keep our lives because too many of our brothers and sisters have been killed. Thankfully, I have this platform where I'm able to share my experiences with you all and I know a lot of people I've been asking, you know, what can we do? Keep on fighting for those who haven't had a voice. Keep posting on social media, keep peacefully protesting. We don't want to feel like victims. We're just asking for equality. We're asking for peace. We're tired of the police brutality. We're tired of the racism. We're tired of being the only ones who look like us in the room. We're tired of feeling alone at work and we want to be treated as equals. When I look at all the things that I've experienced in school and at work, I'm usually the only black person in a room and I would like for that to change. In a video in college, I talked about being black at a predominantly white institution and the main focus of that video was to share my experiences and shed light to what it's like being black in a white world and how every day we have to code switch, we have to assimilate to the majority culture and I guess the silver lining in all this is that now the majority is asking us how we're doing, what they can do to help. So the first thing you could do is put yourself in our shoes. Imagine being the only person that looks like you and on top of that, you have to assimilate to the culture that's around you because your culture has only been accepted in an entertaining way and we're not here for your entertainment. We're here to work with you. We're here to build a better world. I would just, I would love to see more black people in position of power and position of influence. I would love to see black children in inner cities and inner city suburbs given more opportunities, more opportunities to become educated and more opportunities to have a future. For my African-American brothers and sisters that are watching this video, I just wanted to tell you that I believe in you, that I'm here for you, that I love you and that things will get better. Keep being the best version of yourself. We will get through this.