The Black Lives Matter Movement

The phrase going around preaching that “All Live Matter” was created as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement after it acquired attention in the United States and from the rest of the world. In the overall scale of things this “all lives matter” movement completely degrades the purpose of the Black Lives Matter movement. We see through media the representation of black lives being targeted unnecessarily and of course all lives do matter but white people are not subjected to the same abuse as black people. If you don't see or understand that you are most definitely part of the problem.

The Black Lives Matter movement was formed in 2012 by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullers and Opal Tometi when a young, unarmed black male, Trayvon Martin
(aged 17 at the time) was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida. This action was carried out by George Zimmerman, a 28 year old mixed race Hispanic male. The shooting occurred because of a disagreement between the two men. Zimmerman was charged with murder but was spared during trial on the grounds of self defence. The movement is trying to emphasise that there is proof with the U.S justice system that black lives matter less than whites, making it clear that racism is still a massive problem in America. Black Lives Matter have tried endlessly to bring this message across but trying to educate people on social issues such as the negative mannerisms people of colour receive can be extremely difficult.

An American columnist, Arthur Chu stated on Twitter “WTF is the impulse behind changing #BlackLivesMatter to #AllLivesMatter. Do you crash strangers' funerals shouting I TOO HAVE FELT LOSS”. If you struggled to take in the overall message of Chu’s statement, he is saying that just because we preach one live matters (the one’s that is still not equal to white lives) and a white person reacts to it as if “oh so does my life not matter now?!” it is ultimately lowering the justification of how important black lives truly are, since they are also human beings too (obviously). As an example, part of a Unitarian Universalist minister’s explanation to a church member states “Of course all lives matter. Central to Unitarian Universalism is the affirmation of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Sadly, our society has a long history of treating some people as less valuable than others. Study after study has confirmed that in equivalent situations, African Americans and Latinos are treated with deadly force far more often than White people, and authorities held less accountable. Unfortunately, racial bias continues to exist even when it is no longer conscious”. This backs up the reason why the Black Lives Matter movement is so important to help support and save black lives.

In the United States (if you were unaware), an unarmed black person is killed every 28 hours without the involvement of a court and those most at risk to be gunned down by police are black men around the ages of 19 and 25 according to an article by Huffington Post.
They are nearly 5 times more likely to be killed than any other racial or age group. An associate professor, Jack Glaser at Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy said that details such as location, individual behaviour and dress shape who gets stopped by the police and when. Glaser also stated “The way the process works is if you take two equivalent people - a young white man and a young black man who are dressed identically, the black man would still have a greater chance of being stopped and its because his race is a basis of suspicion and it interacts with those other qualities in a way that makes them all seem more suspicious because it biases the judgement of everything”. Even though shootings fell to 35% per year in the 2000s and extrajudicial killings have decreased by 70% over the last 40 to 50 years, the risk is still unreasonably higher for black Americans than white Americans to be a target. Black people are also killed nearly 3 times as much as latinos and just over 4 times as much as asians. In 2015 alone, police killed over 1000 people. This shows that there is still a sad racial issue in
America.

The ongoing “war against police” as some call it was first brought to my attention in August of 2014 when 18 year old Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri by Darren Wilson, a white male police officer.
This event caught my attention and many others around the world. Shortly before Michael’s passing, he had stolen packages of cigarillos from a nearby convenience store with his friend, Dorian Johnson. Wilson was informed of a robbery and shortly after encountered both males walking down a street. They fled the scene but Brown then stopped, turned around with his arms up facing Wilson and then moved forward. Wilson fired a total of 12 bullets at Brown’s front with the exception of two hitting his right arm. The last bullet being fatal resulting in his death. Michael Brown was unarmed. My point is that this young man was unarmed and caused a minor uproar which in no way must of resulted in his death. This occurrence was a clear act of racism and Brown’s death is just one of thousands that have been taken by the hands of white police
officers.

In conclusion, my views are that the “Black Lives Matter” movement is NOT something that should be ignored or brushed away at all. I don't believe that the movement should to be brought down by those saying “All Lives Matter”. If all lives really do matter then show it. Show that a black person matters just as much as as a white person. So right now, we must acknowledge and focus on black lives as it is extremely clear to me and I’m sure lots of others too that there is a terrible problem with racism but black lives matter just as much as mine, yours and everyone else in the world no matter what their skin colour is and its so saddening to see that the American Judicial System doesn't know that as much as they should. Just think of it as what if it was your brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers being killed by police or in police custody? Wouldn't you take a stand and fight back? You wouldn't sit and do nothing, would you? If you can’t try to enlighten people of whom you know personally about this issue, even with me telling you as a young, white, non-American female then this issue would not be brought to much attention. If everyone thought ‘If I do something then it still wont make a difference, I’m not going to bother’ then nothing would ever get done in the world, and don’t be so quick to assume that the movement is a judgement towards white people’s lives, instead educate yourself. Don't stay silent because black lives really do matter.