Oh, the Black Lives Matter movement...
It's a social movement that was started by angry vigilante Black people that is anti-police and "inherently racist" according to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Anyone who supports this movement believes that only Black Lives matter. Also, Black Lives Matter supporters always fail to acknowledge the devastation hurting the Black community due to Black on Black crime.
These are just a few of the things I'm told or hear as someone who supports the movement. I'd like to clarify a few things in response to these ridiculous claims being spouted off by people who do not know, care, or wish to understand why millions of people all over the world are screaming #BlackLivesMatter:
I am not anti-police and I do not believe that Black Lives are somehow more important than all lives. Yes, I fully recognize and understand that crimes against other Blacks are a problem within my community. However, while I understand those things I am fighting for the young Black men, women, and children who are being killed by police officers. Now, I know what you're thinking; but Dee, come on, not all of the victims were innocent people. No, not all of them were innocent people, but that doesn't mean that their lives deserved to be taken before they had a right to due process, tried by a jury and judge of their peers.
Every social and political movement has its pros and cons and those who behave on the extremist side. Does that justify saying that anyone associated with a certain movement is a terrible person? No, of course not. That is what I stand for, that is what I fight for and believe. The lives of Alton Sterling, Sean Bell, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Walter Scott, Rekiya Boyd, Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, DeQuan McDonald, Eric Garner and so many more mattered. Black Lives matter because ALL lives matter. If you find yourself excluding these Black lives from your list then you have a problem.
The problem in America really isn't racism; it's the fact that for centuries, White American society has removed its cognitive dissonance so that she doesn't see a problem with her crimes against African Americans. I want you to think about the Apartheid of South Africa and the Holocaust. The world saw those crimes and those countries had to publicly apologize and amend for what they did. Hence the reason we are taught to 'never forget'. We don't and won't forget the Holocaust or Apartheid because those countries won't let us forget. Those who fail to acknowledge past mistakes are doomed to repeat history. America has yet to address the traumatic events of any of its crimes. Until we acknowledge and explore the horrific atrocities done to both Native Americans and African Americans in particular, we as a country will fail to come together as one.
We don't have a race problem because Black people are lazy, ignorant, thugs or because all White people are racist and all police are bad people. We have a race problem in this country because we refuse to sit down and have an actual conversation about it. We are scared of offending the other side or making anyone feel uncomfortable. This is where ludicrous claims of 'people of color can be racist' come from. When has the prejudice or dislike for Whites by Blacks or other races caused the entire race of White people any kind of harm? The answer, never. Sure, we can be prejudice, but our prejudice is not backed by a system of power that allows us to take our hatred and turn it into systematic oppression.
Another reason we have a race problem is because we as a country refuse to listen to those who were held in oppression. We refuse to admit that this system in which we all blindly believe in, is set up so that people of color cannot succeed, at least not without the odds being stacked against us. Am I saying that we blame White people for everything Blacks have gone through? No, but I want those wrongs acknowledged and rectified. That is why I continue to scream 'stop killing us'.
No one wants to take into account everything that African Americans have suffered at the hands of White people. Everyone wants to tell us to “get over” what has occurred from 1619, when the first Black slaves set foot on this country, this same country that was stolen from Native Americans, until the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1864. Everybody wants us to forget that we were taken from our homeland, put on ships and brought to America. Everybody wants us to forget the 2 Million Black people who died during the middle passage. Everybody wants us to forget that our African names and languages were beaten from our lips until we were forced to speak this broken version of language we now call English.
Everybody wants us to forget the millions of Black men who were separated from their families. Everybody wants us to forget the young Black women and the young Black girls who were forced to lie there while their White masters took their bodies, claimed them as their own and discarded them like old toys; only picking them up when they wanted to ‘play’ with them again. Everybody wants us to forget that our men were also raped. Everybody wants us to forget that during slavery Black men were forced to fight until the death.
Everybody wants us to forget the mixed raced babies that were denied half of their heritage because their ‘Massa’ was their father. Everybody wants us to forget that Whites were the ones who really began the ‘light skin versus dark skin’ debate by separating us into house Negros and field Negros. Everyone wants us to forget that we were lynched, beaten, sold off again, and killed if we knew how to read. No, instead when we talk about these things some White person cries “my people didn’t own slaves” or “Actually, according to research, Black people sold Black people into slavery”; I’ve even heard “The first slaves were actually Irish, and they were treated like dogs” and “Well, you can’t isolate Black slavery, because all people in the world have been slaves”.
Nobody wants to remember that from 1864 until the 1970’s (roughly 40 years ago) that Black people were STILL fighting for the right just to be seen as human. Nobody wants to acknowledge the good things the Black Panthers did; instead, we are told that they are ‘a terroristic hate group’ and its leaders have been killed and or put in jail. Why aren’t people still screaming about the Klu Klux Klan and calling it a ‘terroristic hate group’? Why haven’t their leaders been killed by the Government and put in jail? In fact, why is it that when someone brings up the KKK it’s automatically racist?
Why can’t Black people say that Black Lives Matter without it being seen as racist or anti-police, but yet White people can believe in stupid things like 'White Power' and 'Reverse Racism' and 'White Genocide'? Why is that #AllLivesMatter is only screamed in response to people shouting #BlackLivesMatter? It’s funny how certain groups like Black Lives Matter and the Black Panthers are used to describe the mindset of most African Americans, deeming us as ‘hateful and racist’ but as soon as you discuss how most of America’s mass murder shooters were White or talk about the atrocities White people have committed against Native Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, or Asians, the narrative changes.
No, we as Black people are told not to speak on the years we have spent fighting oppression. We are told that we should get over slavery. Ironically, we are forced to ‘Never Forget’ crimes like the Holocaust. Why must I ‘Never Forget’ the millions of Jews who were killed by Adolf Hitler, but I am forced to ‘stop complaining’ and to ‘stop talking about’ the years, and years, and years, and years of oppression Black people have faced? Has anyone else ever wondered why historical events surrounding White people are always at the forefront of American History, but yet slavery has been reduced to ‘forced labor’?
Has anyone else wondered why Black History Month is slowly being erased from the American Public School system, but yet Black children are forced to learn about Christopher Columbus, you know, that guy who supposedly ‘discovered’ America…except you can’t explore something that already existed. Why do we refuse to talk about the 3 Million Taino Indians Columbus killed when he first came to America? Why aren’t we allowed to talk about the millions of Native Americans who were either killed or forced to assimilate after the Pilgrims came to America?
If you have a dog and you feed it raw meat, play with aggressively, and force it to fight other dogs what do you think is going to happen? That dog is going to be an aggressive dog, right? Now, imagine that people have told you that you're mistreating the dog and that you should stop. How do you erase the mindset you've placed in that dog? If you’ve trained your dog a certain way for so long, do you really think that a few dog treats here and there and a few affectionate belly rubs will stop it from being so aggressive?
No stupid, the vicious training you’ve instilled in that dog still exists and that dog is still a killer. It takes more than belly rubs and dog treats to erase what you've ingrained into that dog.
Black people are America’s dogs.
Think about it; why do you think Black people don't like to, or know how to read? Where do you think ‘Ebonics’ or what is now called African American Vernacular English (AAVE) came from? Why is the Light Skin versus Dark Skin debate still happening? Why can’t we come together as a people? Why aren’t Black men in the home? Why do Black people have what are considered ‘urban sounding names’? Why do you think there are more undocumented sexual assault cases involving Black women? Why do you think there are so many Black people who bleach their skin to look White? Where do you really think ‘Black on Black’ crime came from?
Everything that is happening within the Black community can be traced back to slavery. Yet, no one wants to believe that the mind of the Black man is simply perpetuating what has been ingrained into our very beings since we came to America. You cannot put an entire race of people through what Blacks have suffered and not expect them to have signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Why do we treat war veterans for PTSD, but haven’t thought to do the same for Black people? Do people not think that slavery was traumatic? Do people think that the Civil Rights Era was a cakewalk? Do people not know that 1964 was only 52 years ago? Do people not know that there are millions of Black people still alive following the Jim Crow Era?
You cannot look at the success of a small portion of Blacks and think that all Black people can achieve greatness. If this were so, we wouldn’t be the second poorest race in this country (Native Americans are poorer than us but America’s forgotten about them too). Black women are the most educated people in the country but we are leading in single parent households. Black men account for about 6 percent of the African American population but account for 40 percent of America’s prison population. Black people have the least amount of wealth in America; though people overlook this fact when they see Black athletes and entertainers.
Did you know that there is a glass ceiling for upper middle class Black people? Did you know that Black people once had our own Wall Street but it was burned down by White people? Did you know that White people would go into Black communities during Jim Crow and destroy Black-owned businesses? Did you know that poor urban communities are hit the hardest by gentrification? Have you ever looked at the education system in urban communities and compared it to White education? Do you know what White flight is? Did you know that there are studies out there to back up and confirm everything I’m saying? (Please take the time to watch the presentation Post Traumatic Disorder by Dr. Joy de Gruy Leary)
But still, the problem isn’t the system in which we live; it’s the Black people’s mindsets, right?
If you have a dog and you feed it raw meat, play with aggressively, and force it to fight other dogs what do you think is going to happen?
Black people are America’s dogs, but no one wants to admit it.
