We all know that the media tends to report on negative events, how else will they get their ratings right? However, these past few weeks there has been a war going on between our own people in our own nation. This week, we have seen the disturbing videos of Philander Castile and Alton Sterling being shot by police officers: the men and women who take an oath to serve, protect, and defend us. Keep in mind that these two men are not the only minorities to have been harmed by police officers recently, but the ones getting the most media attention because of the descriptive videos and protests resulting in police deaths.
Alton Sterling was a 37-year-old African American man who was confronted by police officers outside a convenience store in Louisiana for selling CDs on July 5th. Allegedly, an altercation was taking place between the officers and Mr. Sterling and the police officers quickly took Mr. Sterling down to the ground. However, the officers did not merely read him his Miranda rights and maybe arrest him, one of the officers put his gun to Sterling’s head and shot him multiple times, killing the father of five. This devastating event was caught on video by a witness and made public. Below is the video, be warned that it does contain graphic material.
Philander Castile was a 32-year-old African American man who was pulled over for a broken taillight on July 6th (just one day after Sterling’s assassination) in Minnesota. According to Castile’s girlfriend, who uploaded a very graphic video of the incident on Facebook, the officer asked the couple to put their hands up and asked Castile for his license and registration. Castile simply notified the officer that he had a firearm and his girlfriend added that he was licensed to carry. As Castile reached in his pocket to take out his documents upon the officer’s request, the police shot Castile a total of not one, not two, but five times. Sadly, Philander Castile, a hard-working and laid-back man as described by his family, succumbed to the gun shots and died. Below is the video, be warned that it does contain graphic material.
Understandably, these events angered many people from diverse groups, so living in a democracy, they decided to exercise their right to protest in order to draw attention to the injustices victimizing the Black community who have had their own people unjustly beaten and killed by law enforcement. One such protest in Dallas, Texas resulted in the total opposite of a positive political change. During the protest, a sniper was responsible for shooting twelve police officers, killing five of them. There are allegations that the killings were made by Micah Xavier Johnson, a 25-year-old military veteran. In one of the many articles I read from various news sources, one person simply said it was “an eye for an eye” situation, “they kill ours, so we kill theirs." But, in the words of Mahatma Gandhi, an eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind.
What is the problem here? Is it in our legal system or is it in ourselves that we have dehumanized each other to a point that murder is so easily brushed off? Is it the fact that minorities are not being payed attention to unless the media has a reason to point a finger at them and say “THEY killed, THEY are violent”? Being a political science student is extremely hard during these times, as people on social media all believe they are right and base their opinions on skewed data and analyze it with closed minds. The problem here isn’t between two hashtags, people’s priorities seem to be if #alllivesmatter or #blacklivesmatter is the correct hashtag to use at the in their insightful Facebook status or in their emotional Instagram picture. Of course, all lives matter. But, the social media movement of #blacklivesmatter emerged as an attempt to equalize black people, not to imply that black lives should be more important than those of White people or police officers. It is obvious that people in power are harming minority groups in very serious ways and sadly, this is not new. The issue here is what solutions our community will put into action to make all people in our community feel equal and safe.
Instead of focusing our attention on all the negativity (because keep in mind that when a black person murders someone, their face is all over the news, drilling the stereotype into our heads, but when an officer kills a black person, we do not see their face on the media, but rather attempt to justify their actions) we should be communicating with minority communities to understand what they need and pressure our government to take action. As citizens, we should not focus too much attention on the media, as they have their own agenda and frame events in a way that manipulates our thoughts (no, this isn’t some crazy conspiracy theory, there is data and experiments carried out by political scientists and psychologists, do some research!). The media also has a tendency to portray minorities, specifically blacks, Hispanics, and Middle Easterners, as threatening and violent (for example, when a black person commits a crime, their mugshot is everywhere, but when a white person commits a crime, their school photos and smiling family photographs are used in the media). On the contrary, in the real world (meaning not just on social media, where the desirability bias is strong) we desperately need to humanize and understand each other. As members of the human race, we should be looking out for each other with love and respect. We need to stop protecting people who murder just because they are police officers. Police do have the right of due process and a fair trial, but when there is so much evidence (such as videos) that clearly show the assassination taking place, the sentencing (not “paid administrative leave”) should be speedy. Lastly, violence does not solve violence. The minority group is always under close scrutiny, so protest peacefully, stay educated, and speak powerfully. As minorities, we need to work ten times as hard to be respected in this nation, we need to stand in solidarity because #blacklivesmatter too.
