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Listening to Black Voices in Monterey County, Calif.

“It’s difficult to process. In the majority of the Black community, we don’t really speak about our emotions. We were taught to hide our emotions and don’t speak about them. So when you see George Floyd being executed, people react without thinking, because we can’t process our emotions. It’s hard to process, because it’s all unraveling so fast. At the beginning of all this, I was pissed. Black people have been suppressed so long, but a lot of people can’t see it, because they’re in their own bubble. I’m feeling anger, sadness and hurt. How much I have cried this month and last, I haven’t cried that much since my grandmother died from cancer," says Simeon Etoria, a realtor in Carmel, Calif. “It’s great seeing 50 states protest. It’s the biggest civil rights protest in history, and it’s opening eyes. It’s easier not to face it, because discomfort is what we avoid. Now that it’s in the limelight and people have to see it, because without discomfort there is no change or growth.”

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Nic Coury
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“It’s difficult to process. In the majority of the Black community, we don’t really speak about our emotions. We were taught to hide our emotions and don’t speak about them. So when you see George Floyd being executed, people react without thinking, because we can’t process our emotions. It’s hard to process, because it’s all unraveling so fast. At the beginning of all this, I was pissed. Black people have been suppressed so long, but a lot of people can’t see it, because they’re in their own bubble. I’m feeling anger, sadness and hurt. How much I have cried this month and last, I haven’t cried that much since my grandmother died from cancer," says Simeon Etoria, a realtor in Carmel, Calif. “It’s great seeing 50 states protest. It’s the biggest civil rights protest in history, and it’s opening eyes. It’s easier not to face it, because discomfort is what we avoid. Now that it’s in the limelight and people have to see it, because without discomfort there is no change or growth.”
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