Let me begin with saying, I am white. That doesn’t mean that I am (color) blind to the situation that is happening to our country. I am a supporter of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and so should you. I am not here to apologize on behalf of my race because I do not feel that I can or should. You see many white citizens doing so in videos online nowadays.
Dear white people,
Apologizing isn’t going to do anything, and it never will.
We have to stand beside our brothers and sisters of color in order for this racial divide to cease. We need to be a family, a united front against the problem.
#BlackLivesMatter became a way for not only the black community but for the entire country to demonstrate their outrage over the tragedies that have plagued it. We have to acknowledge that African Americans are twice as likely to be shot by police as white Americans and 31 percent more likely to be pulled over.
Tomi Lahren, whose words somehow make their way through Facebook with positive reactions, is receiving a disgusting amount of attention for her offensive views. Get this, though. She is only discouraging white Americans from seeing the true horror happening right in front of them. She is only one of the many who are supporting the racial divide and problems, yet she tries to say Black Lives Matter is just about racism and only for black people. Don't listen to her. Ever. Just laugh at her sometimes.
The problem with this is that every time something like this happens to a black man or woman, I always see white people saying, “If he was white, we wouldn’t even know about it!” That’s untrue and pretty rude. It belittles the loss of the person's life.
With the tragic deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile being shared throughout every social media outlet recently, I saw my same friends posting about Dylan Noble, a 19-year-old white man being shot at, unarmed, and killed by police officers. We are just as outraged with his death; however, you must pay attention to the actual statistic playing out before us. Black people are twice as likely to be shot by police as white people.
There is an epidemic in this country, and it’s called unacknowledged white privilege.
I don’t mean that our privilege necessarily has to do with us being shot less than black people. Our privilege comes from the fact that we don’t really have to be worried that we are being profiled on a regular basis. People of color do.
We will never know what it is like to be black and the effects of everyday life that may come with it, so do not act like you can relate. What you can do is support. Support your neighbors, friends, coworkers, and family. We are one country, but this racial divide is tearing us apart. Don’t run from the phrase “Black Lives Matter” because you’re white. Research more into it if you have to. Educate yourself.
You may think that saying “Black Lives Matter” means that you don’t support the police. Trevor Noah recently said, “It seems like it's either pro-cop and anti-black, or pro-black and anti-cop, when in reality you can be pro-cop and pro-black, which is what we should all be.” This was after the recent Dallas shooting, and he is completely right.
Black Lives Matter supporters respect the police that do their job and serve and protect without prejudice. In fact, there are usually police escorts at protest walks. The Dallas shooting broke everyone’s heart. Those five officers that died had families of their own and were there to make sure that the peaceful protest for the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile stayed peaceful. Their deaths are just as tragic as all the victims of police brutality. Those officers were probably great cops and served their citizens well. That does not go unnoticed.
The police officers that have been behind police brutality incidents are only a small fraction of officers, and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement know that. What we don’t like is that the officers in question are always given “paid administrative leave” and are protected by their fellow “brothers in blue”. That is outrageous, and no one put it quite into perspective as well as Officer Nakia Jones, an African American policewoman that took to Facebook to voice out her concerns for her fellow officers. Her words spoke volumes and showed the public that police officers are just as troubled by the recent shootings as we are.
We want the cops to just acknowledge that some of their own murdered these people and should go to trial. Justice is all that is wanted. If a teacher was not doing their job correctly or was abusing students or something along those lines, would you want the other teachers to back them up? No.
The system needs to be reformed, from training to the mandatory use of working body cameras. Also, they should probably be cautious enough to not shoot into a car at point blank range with a four year old in the back seat. These things are bothering us. So many innocent lives could have been spared.
If you are still anti-black and pro-cop, I feel sorry for you. You are only going to help white people cause a racial divide. Everyone keeps saying that it’s the black community doing the dividing, but it’s not. There are people of every color involved with Black Lives Matter, and I am one of them.
Being a white supporter of this movement doesn’t make you a hero, a fake, a wannabe, it makes you an American that recognizes the problems in our society right now. I encourage you to give your support.
