Black Lives Matter Protests

The Oppressors become the Oppressed In today’s society, equality has been achieved for most, and very few pockets of prejudice still exist. However, these pockets are not like those that existed in the early 1900s. Frequently, racism is displayed from African American individuals towards the “privileged” caucasian population. Similar movements pertaining to the rights of the LGBT community have began to protest the right to free speech. Modern activism has seen a major shift from what it once stood for. In the past, activists stood to increase the rights belonging to their own group. Now, protests seek to remove the rights of others in order to defend the opinions of the protestor. During the 1960s, the primary protests that were see
by the American people were regarding Civil Rights. The famous leader of this movement, Martin Luther King Jr. served not just as an advocate of African American rights, but as an advocate for equality, justice, and understanding between races. In his famous speech “I have a Dream” King said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Here, King argued against the idea that an individual should ever be judged on their appearance. However, nowhere here did King say that his children or the African American population should not be judged. Today, the Black Lives Matter movement leads protests in the name of unjustified killings of African American individuals by law enforcement officers.
Many individuals believe this is a peaceful organization, who argues their point without violence. However, more often than not, Black Lives Matter protests evolve into riots which promote attacking and murdering law enforcement officers. Also, this movement has claimed responsibility for many attacks and executions of officers. Furthermore, these riots have led to mass destruction of cities. One example is Ferguson, Missouri. Here, following the death of Michael Brown, riots broke out involving fires, looting of businesses, and other violence. All of this was in the name Michael Brown, and protesting his lawful killing following his attack on an officer. Brown’s act of violence following a convenience store robbery led to his death, and it was done by his own hand. His death then led to major losses for the community, not only through the loss of a member, but through a loss of unity. Through these protests and the required law enforcement action to settle things, weeks were lost. The New Yorker hosts and article detailing the events of Michael Brown’s death, autopsy, and responding riots. Regarding police force at the riots, “Mr. Brown’s death prompted weeks of demonstrations and a response from the police that include tear gas and rubber
bullets.” Other movements, such as the LGBT rights movement have become exceedingly common in recent times. Prior to June 26, 2015, same-sex marriage was not legal in all fifty states. However, on this date, the Supreme Court ruled it to be constitutional, requiring all states to recognize this by acknowledging previously done same-sex marriages and beginning to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. More recently, their has been a push for the addition of gender neutral restrooms or permitting individuals to use whichever restroom they please. However, the issue that many of these recent protests miss, is that many transexual indiduals have done this for years, and never mentioned anything of it. This year, at the University of Toronto, a professor stood in protest of a bill passed by the Canadian parliament, requiring educators to refer to their transexual students by their prefered pronous.
This professor of Psychology, Peterson, argued that he should not be required to do this, but he should do refer to them by their pronouns out of respect for them. In light of his statements, many trans students gathered to protest his position at the university. What is now seen is these individuals, many of which call themselves a social justice warriors, are fighting for their opinions to stand at the top of everything, rather than letting true equality and rights of the people reign. If they understood Peterson has the right to free speech, there would be no issues. Ultimately, current peaceful protests have a negative effect on society. They move to restrict the freedoms of those who do not agree with the movement completely. Even the Black Lives Matter and LGBT groups have ostracized their less vocal members. The people’s rights to free speech and defending themselves is greatly diminishing through minority groups seeking their own form of justice. The search of political correctness is bringing a time of reduced freedoms and constitutional infringements to all
individuals.