Someone who brings personality to Charlotte and someone who brings a smile to all of our faces when it is needed. Hype man to TikTok dances, Aaron continues to shine a beautiful light on our city. He was kind enough to sit down and discuss his journey throughout COVID-19 and the emotions of Black Lives Matter. Like most of you who read these, I asked Aaron how he is doing:
“I’m feeling pretty good. Work has been a challenge — I work in video production so we are constantly around each other and we make videos for people and that has been a challenge but our team has been fantastic putting in processes for not only keeping us safe but our clients safe as well. My experience in Charlotte is drastically different than my parents in Columbia. Both of my parents are in their 60’s and my Dad has a few ailments that are triggering for the unknown of Coronavirus. Besides the grocery store and my sister's house, they have not been anywhere. They came up here for my birthday and we went out for some food at a restaurant and that was the first time they have been out in the last 90 days. We are seeing things that we will never forget and I will never forget the look on my parents face when we rolled up to the restaurant, it looked like they were going into battle. It’s been hard but I am so blessed to know they are not sick but it’s hard to see them concerned. When you look at your parents they are superheroes and then your Dad says “I don’t want to die from COVID” — it rattles your cage a little bit.”
So far Aaron was one of the first to speak about his parents and family during COVID-19. It hit's home with me because of what I went through not being able to see my mother, who was diagnosed with Breast Cancer at the start of this. The unknown is a scary thing with this virus. I asked if he had any takeaways that have stood out to him:
“Things can change real quick. This is a catastrophic cosmic shift, not only for us but for the whole planet. Every single day we are living history — we are in the middle of it and that’s weird. I wonder how we will look back on this ten years for now, what will our world be at that point? I miss a good handshake. If someone gives a good handshake on TV or a show I’m watching I get anxious. Another takeaway is how adaptive we are as humans. Everyone didn’t know how we are going to stay home as a country for 60 days but hey, we did it.”
Shifting to Black Lives Matter, Aaron was a big help for not only myself but many others who did not know what to say and how to react to it all. He was open and willing to learn and have those conversations we all shy away from and now he is continuing to learn every day. I asked if that was a hard thing to bring to his platform:
“It was very hard, I didn’t know what to say. Should I say, black people, should I say, people of color, mixed? But not saying anything was the worst. It took Garrett and Ohavia pushing me. When they were both saying things to their followers I felt like they were talking directly to me. At the end of the day if I could make one person feel comfortable to come forward, one person who was nervous to say something, actually say something, or help someone call a black friend to reopen a conversation, then it was all worth it. I went from being scared — to saying something to someone who was helping others have that conversation. I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m learning and I’m more than happy to be here to have the conversation to help you move forward. I want to be someone that people look up to in this city.”
Togetherness moves us forward. Based on what he has learned now, I asked if he learned anything new being at the protests back in June.
“The biggest thing was the coming together in our city. We are on to bigger and better things. It’s not going to happen overnight. A few of my black friends told me that you’re going to get burnt out because white people don’t know how to talk about social injustice topics for that long. I felt that. I got home from work and thought about what did I read today or what did I do push my viewpoint forward. It has to be small steps. Having one tough conversation a week is good, reading an article a week is good. Last week I read the John Lewis piece in the New York Times — what a legend. I said it on my Instagram, I had no clue who John Lewis was until he passed away, that’s terrible. Those are the kinds of people I want to learn more about and know about. I will continue to push my knowledge forward, I will continue to call myself out for things I don’t know and will continue to challenge other people to do just that.”
