The black community has been oppressed for centuries, and recent events like the shooting of Mike Brown and the death of Kevin Gardner show that oppression is still very present today There is still a voice in the darkness of society that screams “racism is dead”; “there is no such thing as white privilege”; or ”racism will only stop if you people stop talking about it.” Those last words are the most upsetting, How can anyone expect change if no one is addressing the issue? As a society, we have built-in social normalcies of racism and have been bred into a system that is controlled by unprecedentedly high standards of living in a white-washed society. Like many countries America has a dark past, Slavery was a huge contribution to building the country, but unlike most countries, American slaves were enslaved primarily because of their race, This created a divide in the country that lead to wars and later protests for freedom.
When African Americans were finally free, they were still bound by the hatred that was taught to the white society as a child, and for generations, this was passed on. Now in the twenty-first century, you would think that the stigmas and prosecution of the black community would be over but we are far from it. We have come a long way from the persecution of the sixties, but we still have a long way to go Therefore, the movement of Black Lives Matter has taken off so fast. Events all over the country, like the death of Sandra Bland and the shooting of Travon Martin, have opened the black communities’ eyes to the blunt reality of racism Yes, you could say, well, if they didn‘t want to get hurt, they shouldn‘t have done what they did or argue that you can’tjust say thatjust black lives matter. What about everyone else? Those arguments are true to a certain point No one is saying that all lives don’t matter. They are just pointing out that group being persecuted right now, which is the black community.
Apparently, some people, like the author of the article “Why ‘Black Lives Matter‘ Isn’t going to fix our problems”, believe that the real problem lies within our justice system, she isn’t wrong. There is a huge issue between ourjustice system and the African. In the article “The black lives matter movement — conservatives are missing the bigger picture” It said that “Every 28 hours a black man, woman, or child is murdered by the police or vigilante law enforcement.” This is just insane to even comprehend, but it is still not the full picture. Yes, the system seems as if it is designed to keep the black community down, but you can just say that it is the justice system. It is also the image that the media is displaying of the African American community. This idea that the black face of a person means aggression, disobedience, and ignorance has kept the stigma alive in the American people.
The thing that needs to be changed is the mindset of people because without that anything that the justice system puts in place won’t mattert People will still go on and believe what they want to, even though the government says something entirely different All the people who are saying and doing these things are missing the point of the whole movement, They argue that it’s not a race thing and that black on black crimes are higher than white on black crimes. This is true but white-on-white crimes are just as high You can‘t just shout of a statistic without showing both sides and that’s a huge part of the problem too because people only give out half-truths and half the information. It may not be a question of if this is a race thing but a humanity thingt Either way this is still a growing issue that needs to be addressed by not just by the government but by the American people. Not everyone is racist but there are some people that still are racist.
Even the president of the NAACP agrees that it‘s notjust the police but the culture that is reviving these racist tendencies. His exact words were “We need not to look for an individual racist to say that we have a culture that we have a culture of policing that is really rubbing salt into longstanding racial wounds,” this is completely agreeable because it seems like when the nation takes one step toward progress then end up having to take five steps back. The movement of #Blacklivesmatter was a bit aggressive at times, like the riots that broke out in cities across America, which is something I don’t agree with, but it was a way to grab the attention to the issue. It is crazy to destroy your own property to get a point across but it was successful.
More people know now about what has been going on and have been speaking up about the police brutality in their neighborhoods. In every city, there was a Kevin Gardner and Sandra Bland and the people are fed up with how things are being handled, so it makes sense that violence would be answered with violence. Even though resorting to violence should never be the answer. So, where do we go from here? After all of this is said and done in the distant future. What will our kids be exposed to? Will I have to teach my children what my parents taught me about racism? These questions are all being asked because the hope and mission of black lives matter is to eliminate these questions and stop racism in America, and stop the African American fear of the police and the police/public fear of African Americans.
