Black Lives Matter. People shake their heads at the movement, at the people behind it. BLM members are socialists. They get offended about - sorry, triggered by - everything. Racism doesn’t exist anymore.
Except it does, and people ignore it every single day.
Every few days, it seems, there's another black person's name in the news, shot by police despite being unarmed. This week's was Charles Kinsey. He's a therapist and was outdoors trying to calm an autistic patient. He told police that he was unarmed and that his patient was holding a toy truck, not a gun. And yet, he’s sitting in a hospital right now because police shot him in the leg. Who will next week's victim be, because our country won't admit to itself that there is a problem?
Racists spare no one, not even those in positions of relative power. Leslie Jones starred in a reboot of "Ghostbusters" this year, along with three other women. Jones’ co-stars were white, while she is black. This shouldn't really matter though, right?
Except, last week, Jones' Twitter was clogged with racist slurs and images. Her co-stars undoubtedly received hate on "Ghostbusters," but Jones was the only one attacked because of her race. Attacked so viciously, in fact, that it made several different news sources and has been the subject of dozens of outraged articles. (Rather like this one.)
Yes, things are better than in centuries past. It's been a century and a half - they should be! And yet, we're still struggling to unite as a country and accept that helping certain groups above others is still done for equality. We want to create an even playing field, give everyone equal opportunity, and some groups simply need a bigger boost up to achieve this. If you're reading this as an All Lives Matter supporter, know this: of course all lives matter. Saying that black lives matter is not saying that other lives don't. The hashtag is simply a reminder, as some citizens seem to forget that black lives have the same value as anyone else's.
So. Plenty of people rant about this. But what can we, as regular civilians, do?
We can acknowledge. Racism will never go away unless we acknowledge that it still exists. Just because America doesn't enslave people anymore doesn't mean racism has faded from our society.
We can be aware. Listen to what black people say! How can someone who isn't black even have the whole story?* Read about what's going on; understand. This is an issue that people are constantly arguing about on large and small scales, so it's definitely worth understanding!
*Of course, we can't understand what black people experience if we aren't black.
We can defend. When Leslie Jones' twitter was flooded with abuse, thousands of Twitter and Tumblr users sent her positivity through #LoveForLeslieJ. A tweet or post, as simple as it is, can create a movement, and tells people that casual racism is not okay.
Of course, we can write about it. (Hi.) We can talk about it via social media. We can vote, we can respect others, and we can join anti-racism groups. Racism won't fade unless we make it.
#Blacklivesmatter #Ican'tbreathe #sayhername #handsupdontshoot
