I find myself drowning in the mass level of hate our world faces today. I have to brace myself to turn on the news. Every headline I read is of another innocent life lost. The "how to make" food videos I look forward to on Facebook are interrupted by racist rants and prayers for peace. Flags are continuously at half mass in memory of another victum whose life was stolen because of a hate crime. When did the United States of America lose its unity? When did peoples lives stop to matter? When did the people who are supposed to keep us safe become deemed as the ones we are afraid of? When did it become okay to stereotype the group because of one persons mistakes?
The ironic thing about the human body is that it is the same if you're any race. A human life is a human life. No one persons life is more important than another because of the race. Strip away the skin color and we are all still people. People who live in an unfair world. The medias biased coverage of events due to a racial outlook is unfair. To stereotype a group of people because of one persons actions is unfair. To use a tragedy as an excuse to shove your political options down your peers throats is unfair. No one knows why bad things happen to good people. This question has stood the test of time. One of the easiest coping mechanisms is to hate everyone and everything related to something that caused you pain. It's hard to forgive and try to understand why people do what they do. Instead, they are quick to jump to the "an eye for an eye" mindset. Fighting fire with fire won't put out the original flame and fighting an act of hate with an act of hate won't create a sense of peace. There is no justice for the people who have been murdered in police brutality. There is no justice for the officers who have been murdered just for wearing the uniform. Their families will morn the death of their loved ones through the T.V. screen, where all of their mistakes will be broadcasted in a poor attempt to cover a mistake. Their memory is not shown as a person, but as a statistic.
Discrimination(n.): the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. Racism(n.):the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. Both of these words are key to the black lives matter protest. Black lives matter was created with the intent to fight against racism. Yet, the name of the movement implies that their race is superior because JUST their lives matter. Maybe the name was not intended to mean that JUST black lives matter, maybe it was intended to show that they have been discriminated against and want justice. But what qualifies as justice? A white police officer suspecting a black man of being harmful and shooting him even though he wasn't threatening his life is an act of discrimination. A black man opening fire on police officers that were not harming anyone and killing five of them just because of the fact that they were police is an act of discrimination. There is wrong in both of these incidents. There is no justice in either of these incidents. You are becoming the thing that you hate. The discrimination consumes you and the hate wins. The racism wins. You are not fighting the discrimination, the hate, the crime, you are feeding it. You can't be anti racism and pro discrimination, the two work hand in hand.
In this time of tragedy, we should come together instead of dividing. We live in an unjust world, but in this unjust world we live in a country where we are equal. We all have equal rights. We are all people. As americans, we are each others people. The black lives lost due to police brutality aren't just that races "people." They are the citizens of Americas people too. The police lives lost due to an act of retaliation weren't just that careers "people." They were the citizens of Americas people too. They are my people. They are your people. The lives lost deserve a moment of silence instead of a scream in hate. We should face these hate crimes with a shield of love. The hardest thing to do in the world is love one another, but I challenge you to. Black lives matter. White lives matter. Muslims lives matter. Indians lives matter. Asians lives matter. Mexicans lives matter. LGBT lives matter. Police officers lives matter. My life matters. Your life matters.
