With the way that violence has been spinning out of hand the last few days/weeks the violence that has been sweeping over the United States keeps getting worse. As a Black female living in America, I don’t know whether or not I should be afraid to leave my house based on the way police have been acting. I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, the stereotypical “dangerous,” neighborhood. However, I have grown up in an area that has predominantly Caucasians and Mexicans. I have never been afraid to police because most of the people in my neighborhood have family members who are police, however with the way that police have been portrayed on the news lately, sometimes I’m worried what will happen when I step outside of my own house. Whenever I log onto Facebook I always see numerous responses to “Black Lives Matter,” posts. The top comments are always “All lives should matter,” or “people killing police is not justice,” or even “people causing riots and destroying is probably the reason that Black males are getting killed.
I’ll be the first person to agree, that riots that involve violence do not get things done. However, riots are not the only types of protests there are. There are just as many, if not more peaceful protests that also include sit-ins. There are people who are marching peacefully and quietly to have their voices being heard. If there are cases where riots are breaking out, these are angry people, who do not always know how to keep themselves calm. Yes, these can be problems, but if there wasn’t an issue in the first place, these types of riots wouldn’t break out.
When I read an article online, I saw the line “Race is a trigger for police brutality,” this really got to me. As of July 2016, police have killed at least 136 Black people in America. The latest being Philando Castile after being shot dead by a police officer. When I had seen the video of this man bleeding out I was both angry and terrified. I was angry because the man was clearly scared and while the officer was yelling at the woman to keep her hands up, he kept a gun pointed at the car; while there was a child present! I was also angry because when the woman was asked to get out of the car there was more than one officer with guns pointed at her. Why would you need more than one officer for two unarmed people and who have a child! I was terrified because there was a little girl, who not only saw her mother’s boyfriend get shot, but watched as officers pointed guns at her mother.
Now the first thing that most people will ask after hearing about [Black] people being killed by police is “what did they do?” After they hear what the person did they will say “well maybe they shouldn’t have done that.” Now I will be the first person to admit that yes, although I completely agree with some of what people have done that they should not have done it, but that is NOT the point. Regardless of what someone has done, not one and I mean no one deserves to be murdered. The idea that someone (Marcus Garvey) was selling cigarettes (illegally) does NOT mean that he deserved to be killed in cold blood. Many people will say that “well because of his size, they needed more than one officer to hold him down,” do people not think that there are other ways to detain a (larger) man than forcefully holding him down? Because cops own more than on “weapon” such as a stun gun/taser which could have been used. In the case of Philando Castile was shot, not once, not twice, not even three times, but four times! Then on top of that, the police officer continued to have his gun pointed at him.
This all comes down to the “Black Lives Matter” movement, the purpose of this movement is to raise awareness of the Black lives which are being taken away by police. The reason that people often respond to “Black Lives Matter,” with “All lives matter” is because they believe that the movement’s only focus is on the lives of Black people. However, this isn’t the point. The purpose is to raise awareness, to say “hey, yes, ‘all lives matter,’ but the main focus at this very moment, are Black lives.” Some of the most common responses that I hear/see/read in response to Black people being killed are:
“You people are doing it to yourselves.”
OR
“Those people deserve it.”
Does a young boy walking alone at night “deserve” to die because he looks “suspicious?”
(Trayvon Martin)
Does a person illegally selling cigarettes “deserve” to be choked out?
(Marcus Garvey)
Does a woman, who was being pulled over for changing lanes without signaling “deserve” to die?
(Sandra Bland)
Does a man selling CDs in front of a store “deserve” to be killed?
(Alton Sterling)
Does a man who was listening to what an officer had to say, “deserve” to be shot multiple times?
(Philando Castile)
If you were to go on google and search “list of Black people killed by police,” the first link is to a website http://killedbypolice.net/ where there is a (long) list of [Black] people who have been killed by police. This list started on January 1st of 2016 and as of July 2016 the list has reached 608 people. The most shocking part about this list is that little to half of these people are actually known about. Although only of few of these people did a (petty) crime, does this mean that they deserve to pay with their lives? NO, of course not! The fact that some people do not see an issue with this both upsets and disturbs me. The fact that I fear for not only my own life, but for the lives of my siblings, cousins and even Black men and women I don’t know is a nerve wrecking thing. The fact that young Black men are growing up learning how to talk to police or how to behave around police is ridiculous. Why should they be taught how to act around police when police clearly aren’t being taught how to act around [Black] men? This is the same as rape culture, why do women have to watch how they dress or how they act around men, shouldn’t men be taught how not to rape, or how not to treat a woman?
Although I use to believe that it was a certain stereotype that was getting killed, I then decided to actually take a look. In the case of Trayvon Martin, he wore a hoodie, but was he selling drugs? Did he have a gun on him? In the Sandra Bland story, was she holding any weapons? Did she have any drugs on her? Then I realized that this had nothing to do with the types of things these people did, it had to do with the types of people these people were. It’s up to us (not only the Black community), as Americans to figure out just what is going on with the police force and how was can put a stop to these killings, because Black Lives do Matter.
Below is the video of Philando Castile.
The video contains sensitive material that may be disturbing to some individuals. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
