After George Floyd was brutally murdered by a police officer after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by an officers knee both #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter went trending on twitter. Whenever the discussion of the #BlackLivesMatter movement appears; people instead of trying to get an understanding on why a movement such as this is necessary have a knee jerk reaction about "Why Not Me" "Doesn't my life matter"?!

People saying that black lives matter doesn't insinuate that other lives don't. It doesn't mean that white lives don't matter, or that other lives aren't important. Of course all lives matter. But the fact that some white people tend to get so upset about the black lives matter movement is proof that nothing can focus solely on the wellbeing and livelihoods of black bodies without white people assuming it is to their demise.

When were white people inhumanely transported like livestock from Africa? When were white people kept as slaves, seen as property while being abused and raped and killed? When were white people lynched by the KKK?

I'll answer that for you.. They weren't.

African-Americans have died at the hands of police at a rate of 7.2 per million, while white people were killed at a rate of 2.9 per million. If "All Lives Matter" then why is this continuing? If All Lives Matter, why is the black lives matter community continually forced to justify their anger and grief? If All Lives Matter, why does the criminal justice system continue to put the victims of racial discrimination and police brutality on trial, rather than punishing their assailants, and quite honestly never punishing their assailants. If All Lives Matter, then why has our government, our society acted like POC lives don't matter?

Before saying "All Lives Matter" look up the word ALL. It's towards the front. Our country is built off the systematic oppression and racism against POC; and we should be sickened by the continuous proof that we have yet to correct our wrongdoings as a country to protect black lives.