Written Voices

Reclamation: Breaking‌ ‌the‌ ‌Chains‌ ‌of‌ ‌‌Racism‌ ‌and‌ ‌Police‌ ‌Brutality

Reclamation

February 16, 2021

Author: Vashti Sherrod

Racism and police brutality are not thinly veiled political concepts. They are the reality that Americans of African descent must live with as unwelcome companions of our daily existence. As common as the air we breathe or the water we drink or the food we eat, we must stay woke to this existential energy to recognize and describe our truth to navigate our environment with clarity to survive. Encountering these realities often results in the need to activate our best friend, JUSTICE. 

Born during the Jim Crow plagued South, and later a participant in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, Vashti Sherrod is no stranger to racism. But even she couldn’t imagine the horror she would experience one day as her husband and she left their home for a simple errand. In Reclamation‌: ‌Breaking‌ ‌the‌ ‌Chains‌ ‌of‌ ‌‌Racism‌ ‌and‌ ‌Police‌ ‌Brutality, Vashti transports the reader back to the nightmare that involved her own “Karen” long before the alter-ego became a popular reference in 2020.