Coming to terms with how I feel about the Black Lives Matter movement has been something I’ve internally debated for close to two years now. It has been a struggle to decide where my place is in this movement, how much I have a right to say, how much I have a right to feel, and how much of this deserved to be a personal stance on my part. This past year in the US, I’ve dealt, in my own way, with the deaths of black lives, brown lives, white lives, and blue lives. As a Mexican-American, I’ve seen the struggle that others of my background face. As Latinos, we live with radicalized police brutality, mass incarceration, and anti-immigrant laws that threaten and actively break apart our families. Just this past July, 8 Latinx were killed by US cops with close to no news coverage. When you know that the color of your skin also puts you at risk, you have to wonder...

“Where’s my movement?”

For some Latinos, this question leads to a belief that the stance “All Lives Matter” is the answer. Because to them, if all lives matter, that means that Latino struggles and oppression is acknowledged and acted upon. Under this claim, that means that regardless of a person’s origins, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education, citizenship status, or socio-economic status, they are accepted and should be granted the exact same opportunities, right?

It would be great if that were true, but to date “All Lives Matter” has done nothing to help resolve the injustices faced by any minorities in America. Instead, it has become a new way to claim neutrality. Well, as Desmond Tutu once said, “if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” So then the question becomes, “Who in this case are the oppressed, and what is the solution?”

To date, there is no official data that accurately displays the number of people that have been killed by the police in the United States. However, the University of California recently conducted a study that found the probability of being unarmed and shot by the police 3.49 times more likely for black Americans than white Americans. According to a Washington Post database, black people make up 13 percent of the US population and 24 percent of those fatally shot in the US.

A 2016 Police Accountability Task Force report in Chicago discovered that black and Latino drivers are searched 4 times more often than white drivers. The data also showed that despite this profiling, contraband was found twice as often on white drivers as black or Latino drivers.

Based on these numbers, it is apparent that those most affected by racial profiling, in this case, are African Americans, followed by Latinos.

Finding a solution to this oppression isn’t as easy.

It is important to note the immense differences between the discrimination African Americans and Latinos have faced in American society. The different worlds that each minority embodies represent two different perspectives and struggles that have lived throughout American history.

And yet, the same discrimination that has prevented African American children from receiving an equal education as compared to white Americans has left Latino children in the US at an unequal advantage as well. Both minorities inhabit low-income neighborhoods and communities filled with violence that is just as responsible for taking black and brown lives as the law enforcement. Both communities are stuck in a cycle of poverty and prejudice that is hard to escape. Deconstructing the stigmas that come with this lifestyle is even harder. Regardless of whether a black or brown child has the capabilities to rise academically, the willpower to succeed, or the upbringing to believe in a meaningful future, the lack of support from the rest of the American society to see them as anything more than the “other” creates a division that goes beyond economic status.

The United States does not have a “policing problem.” We have a mindset issue that cannot be resolved through further division. Saying that I support the Black Lives Matter movement does not mean I am against the police. I do not see any solution in rioting on the streets. However, I do see a purpose in uniting black and brown communities to stand against a discrimination and unjust profiling we are both familiar with. We both have an enemy, and it is not each other. It’s not a badge, it’s not the white race, it’s not a presidential candidate. It’s a system that continues to place minorities at a loss.

Based on all that we know, it makes sense that we rise united. If we don’t, I fear that the lives of the marginalized (of any background) will never truly be free.