Orange County

Orlando pastor says Black Lives Matter protests give microphone to generations-old dialogue on racial disparities, inequalities

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ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orlando pastor said the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests have given a microphone to a decades-old issue in the U.S.

“It’s not just police brutality alone, it is going to court for something minor and finding out that you’re going to be there for 10 years and somebody else got there for 6 months,” said pastor David Jacques with The Kingdom Church. “It is the fact of a man can go into a church shoot up an entire church and get taken to Burger King and another person can't be taken home that's drunk on the side of the road. So when we see the disparities that are happening, it is a culture.”

Jacques said he uses these things as examples to teach the importance of race relations at his church in Pine Hills.

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“I don't think the narrative has changed I think it’s just been magnified,” Jacques said. “It’s just like a microphone that has picked up conversation that has been happening for a while.”

Jacques said the disparities and inequalities that have started a movement have changed the American Dream.

“The American Dream used to be ‘hey, we want you to have a big house, a nice car,’ but now the American Dream for a black male is we just want to get you home,” he said.

Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson, WFTV.com

Sarah Wilson joined WFTV Channel 9 in 2018 as a digital producer after working as an award-winning newspaper reporter for nearly a decade in various communities across Central Florida.

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