It should be common knowledge that a minority of a group of people does not define the overall group, but sadly, this knowledge is not too common. 93% of Muslims do not support and are against radical interpretations of Islamic teachings, yet when news breaks about a terrorist attack and the attacker happens to be Muslim, a lot of people hold the whole religion, along with all Muslims, along with anyone who “might be of Middle Eastern descent” accountable. All three of these claims are false, for Islam is a peaceful religion which promotes ethics and morals and the majority of the Muslim population do not even reside in the Middle East, and instead, are spread out throughout Asia and Africa.
So why must so many people be quick to blame all Muslims for the acts of such few individuals? The answer lies within the ignorance of the public towards this topic, or perhaps in the facileness of just throwing someone under the bus. Lets not forget that the KKK is (not was, sadly) a group that identifies as strong “Christians,” but apparently there is no such thing as Radical-Christianity, right?
Much like the Islamic religion is being blamed for extremists who are misinterpreting contents of the Quran, the Black Lives Matter movement is being unjustly prejudiced against due to a minority of its followers turning to violent and unethical methods of retaliation and protests. The BLM movement, which has supporters of many different races and ethnicities, serves the purpose to raise awareness about institutional racism and inequality regarding the black population found in society today. This group of people is simply attempting to achieve equality through peaceful protests and messages, yet so many people perceive them as negative or malicious. Riots with signs saying “Black Lives Matter” or a few of the followers of this movements who choose to protest in evil ways should not and do not define what the movement is actually about.
The fake movement called All Lives Matter is not doing the same as Black Lives Matter, and instead is causing division within the people. All Lives Matter was created in attempts to dilute the message of Black Lives Matter, and once again, turn the attention away from the voices of minorities. The reason I believe in this being the true nature of All Lives Matter is through observing that the vast majority of those who support All Lives Matter do not support the US taking and sheltering Syrian refugees, support mass deportation and separation of undocumented immigrants (news flash, the term undocumented immigrant is not a synonym for Mexican, Hispanic, or Latino,) do not believe that feminism is a real movement, or tying back to the beginning, decide to join the new, not-so-hot trend of Islamophobia.
Phobias and stereotypes based on groups’ minorities are greatly dividing the United States up and are the root of almost every social or political problem. Most liberals are not unemployed or overly sensitive much like most conservatives are not neo-Nazis or against human rights. By diminishing radical and uneducated thoughts towards groups of people, this country will be much better off and function more smoothly and efficient if the American people are able to live in harmony with one another.
