Black Lives Matter.
A child’s father, the father's child, the mother's son, the mother of a son.
We live in a nation where disregarding one's pain because it's never been felt is so common. You could say let's cure breast cancer because its affecting women and someone else would say let's cure all cancer, but the point is always missed. We are talking about the treatment when it comes to people of color in America, especially those who are African-American. Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, John Crawford III, Tanisha Anderson, Freddie Grey, most recently Alton Sterling and Philando Castile just last week, and the forgotten. These are black men and women, young and old, all shot and killed by police who weren't acquitted. So what does that say about America and Americans? There needed to be a movement started and it was Black Lives Matter.
Never once did it say no one else matters, but you see that no one else is getting shot down but us. Our lives obviously don't matter, our bloodshed doesn't matter and that's an issue. Black lives must matter before All lives can. As much as people want to dismiss it, black lives don't matter to society. There are policemen who are here to serve and protect, but use their badges as a murder free pass. How can black lives matter when we don't feel safe and we are unsure of who is here to protect us.
Marching and protesting peacefully is our way of being noticed. We wouldn't be having this conversation if this occurred frequently with white men and women. For example, Eric Garner, New York, confronted for allegedly selling cigarettes while white men get away with crimes greater than this one. I titled this "Clarification of the Black Lives Matter Movement" because bodies aren't enough to show that black lives don't matter. There are people who neglect the meaning of what this movement is doing and how far we are going to go with it. Black lives are always going to be pushed in a world where we keep getting pushed down. I can't word it any other way: Black Lives Matter isn’t anti-white or anti-other races, it's pro-black race, we are pushing the idea that one day, we can finally matter. With that being said, there shouldn't be this big debate about “All lives Matter vs Black Lives Matter” because never once did it imply that all other lives don't matter. The bottom line is that we as Americans must do better, we need to be more compassionate and caring toward one another. We share this country and going at each other's necks isn't making our stay here any better. Being an American is special, it's something that people in other countries are jealous of and instead of living as one, we bicker and tear one another down. Until racial profiling and discrimination stop, there won't be any need for the hashtag, but until then #BlackLivesMatter.
