“All Lives Matter” this is a slogan, I have a HUGE problem with. “All Lives Matter” became popular after “Black Lives Matter,” let me start by saying that I am not picking sides. I try to stay neutral when it comes to police brutalities or shootings, but I felt this had to be said-- both movements are bogus, each movement is way to racially separate a certain group of people. You may wonder how? “Black Lives Matter,” shines a spotlight on black lives only, and “All Lives Matter,” just varies from the person that is shouting it. Instead we should be making a progressive movement as individuals to say “My Life Matters.”

I am aware and prepared to get the backlash that this will have against me by my peers. Some may even say that I do not understand either movement because I am privileged, but let me clear this up for you, WE ARE ALL PRIVILEGED in someway. I am voicing my unpopular opinion as a person of color in hopes that others will recognize the real problem.

Problem: We are reflecting someone’s poor actions and pinning them against every person of their race or religion. We are too focused on what the person next to us is doing by believing that somehow it is affecting or offending us. We are driven to unrealistic conclusions by the media. We are told not to think.

I am not justifying poor policing but I am also not defending criminals. In some situations police officers are faced with no choice but to shoot. We as the public cannot argue that there could have been a different way to resolve the matter, we cannot say that police officers need better training and we cannot say that injured/shot was not a danger. Just take a step back and think about it, what do most people do when they feel threatened? Find a way to protect and defend themselves. Police Officers have a 21 foot rule, in which the rule states that in the time it takes for an officer to recognize the threat, draw the sidearm, fire two rounds, the suspect can charging the officer with a knife or any other weapon can cover a distance of 21 feet. This rule has been put to test and proven to be more true than false in most occasions. I asked a close friend to give me his opinion on the rule and passive policing, this is what he said, "A more passive police force would not be able to meet aggressive threats with a proportional amount of force causing them to not be able to adequately suppress a threat in a timely fishing, leading to an increase threat to both the officer as well as the general public," - Hunter Allen. From the other perspective we as a society cannot say that the suspect shot was being danger to itself, the public or police officer. Most importantly we MUST NOT compartmentalize every person of that race or religion as one in the same after the fact.

However, we as a society do these things, when we know that we should not. We marginalize people. We do this against police officers when they make a mistake. Society forgets that cops are people too. Yet we expect them to still go out and work their shifts to protect and serve, even after we criticize their every move. They have a life that matters to someone else. We also do it to those who were collateral or at fault of a mistake. We say things like, “it was black, it was muslim, it was involved with drugs and it was related with gangs..they all are." Those statements are not always true.

There is a quote by Ghandi that constantly lingers in my head, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world,” we must throw out selfish movements that discriminate against anyone. My life matters, for me to recognize that I am part of the problem while instead I should be part of the solution.

There is not specific solution, but as people that live in the greatest country in the world we should be smarter. We should tell our children to respect authority, to not be rude towards a cop even if that cop is being disrespectful. Our police departments and police academies should teach their officers that a person of color is not one to be afraid of. They should teach tolerance and that someone’s skin color is not enough reason to be considered a threat. This cannot happen until everyone begins taking responsibility for the things we say and post that deteriorate all live.

AND even then we can only hope that people will want to change.