With recent current events, the "Black Lives Matter" movement has been brought back to all major news media outlets, and is a hot topic of conversation on every social media platform imaginable. People of all different races, ethnicities, and backgrounds of people from all around the world are chiming in and putting their two cents in about what they think about the recent Dallas police officer shootings. When tragic things of this nature happen, the all too common "Black Lives Matter" vs. "Blue Lives Matter" debate gets taken to a whole new level of intensity. Then, if two opposing sides didn't cause enough friction, there's the "Don't all lives matter?" people screaming from the back.
Yes, all lives matter. But that isn't exactly the point. When people say that black lives matter, or blue lives matter, they aren't saying that no other life form matters. Saying that black lives matter does not mean that the lives of Asians don't matter, or the lives of Hispanics don't matter, or that the lives of Caucasians don't matter. When people say that Black Lives Matter, they aren't even saying that the lives of police men and women don't matter.
Let that sink in for a moment.The only thing that the "Black Lives Matter" movement is saying, is quite simply, that the lives of black citizens do matter.
It can be quite hard for people to understand that celebrating something else isn't taking away anything from what isn't being celebrated. Me celebrating my birthday Feb. 27 doesn't mean your birthday doesn't matter even if it isn't the same day, right? It just means it isn't your time to celebrate.
Being a 19 year old, white, middle-class female in the United States, I face little to no discrimination, aside from obviously being less smart and inferior to men, and the occasional cat-call a girl might receive. But in today's time, I've never been denied the right to get an education, been forced to sit in the back of a bus, or feel belittled due to my race. Despite these things never happening to me, I also wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I am going in debt to go to college, I too have to live on McChickens during college when my bank account get's dangerously low for the millionth time, and I don't get to fly anywhere first class.
This is where things can get a little confusing. With all the above things I mentioned, and as classy as McChickens can be, it's a little hard to rattle off that list and then say I am "privileged."
The term "white privilege" can send even the most liberal people into a blind rage. Telling someone who lives paycheck to paycheck and feels anything but privileged, that they're privileged is asking for an earful. But, here is yet another fun fact, the term white privilege has nothing to do with your financial situation or material possessions.
Reread my last sentence and let that sink in, just for a second.
White privilege has to do with things that white people, myself included, take for granted, because we've never experienced being another race. I live in a primarily white county in south-western Pennsylvania. I am the majority, and have never felt ostracized or outnumbered because of my race. I have never been made to feel stupid for being my race. I have never had racist comments made at me. I have never feared getting pulled over (aside from my sometimes too speedy commutes to college.) I have never been profiled because of who I am. These are just a few of the prejudices that some African-American's in this country face everyday, that I have never experienced. That is not to say that white people never face discrimination or that all black people have been subjected to this, but this is what people are fighting for. When people say "Black Lives Matter" they are fighting for a very sad, statistical, truth that the black citizens are most likely to be subject to police brutality and hate crimes/violence.
The African American community needs our help and we all need to stand united. No matter what race you are, or what you believe in, I think we all can agree that the hatred in today's society is ridiculous and what we really need in todays world more than anything is love and peace.
