Viewers Moved by Bloody and Bruised Man's Viral Video Describing Huge Struggles to Better His Community

All Ronald Moon, Jr., wanted to do was refurbish his dad's Cincinnati house and turn it into a community center to help his neighborhood.

Ronald Moon, Jr. (Image source: YouTube)

But on a viral video he posted to YouTube Wednesday — viewed nearly 800,000 times since — a bloodied, bruised and tearful Moon told viewers just how hard his struggles have been.

Pointing his cellphone camera toward him, Moon described how he'd just been attacked by three men and two women who've been breaking into the house.

"This is what they did to me," he said, pointing to cuts and bruises on his face and arms and back.

Incredibly, Moon said he asked his assailants during their attack why they were beating him up. "They couldn't say," Moon shared. "They don't know."

The frustration was more than he could keep inside.

"I'm tired of struggling, I'm sick of it," Moon said, tears streaming down his face. "I'm just trying to do the best that I can for my people."

Moon didn't disclose the skin color of his attackers, but he implored viewers to not doubt black people's pain and hurt. "I still love all, all my people," he said. "I love everyone. I love you."

But things have a way of turning around.

On Thursday Moon set up a GoFundMe page for the community center.

"I left my job two months ago to fully dedicate myself to this but foolishly struggled to seriously ask for help," Moon wrote. "I realize that everyone cannot offer 100% or even sometimes 10% of their time to a cause they regard as just but for me, this is worth it and I can make the sacrifice but I seriously need help."

And the help has been coming in huge: As of Friday night, over $50,000 in donations have poured in for the community center which he said will go "directly to restoration cost, application fees, and food for volunteers."

"Keep going brother!" one donor wrote back.

Moon wants the center to be a place "where ideas, skills, and resources can be shared," among them storytelling, carpentry, tailoring, plumbing, and computing.

Here's the video he originally posted:

(H/T: The Huffington Post)

—

Follow Dave Urbanski (@DaveVUrbanski) on Twitter