This will probably offend some of you. I will probably lose some friends over this. Some of you will probably disagree with me. But that is perfectly fine. Because it needs to be addressed.
The Black Lives Matter movement is not about hate or revenge. It is about equality and justice. All we want is to be treated as equals. We want, no we deserve, not to be gunned down for selling CDs, wearing a hoodie, or reaching for our license. We deserve to be treated with respect, just like anyone else.
You love our dance moves, our "boxer braids", and our sense of style but not us. You'll jump up and hit the dab with us or twerk to Panda but when one of us is murdered for no apparent reason, you become quiet. You're closest friends can be black yet you won't stand up for them.
It wasn't until we voiced our opinions about gay rights that people wanted to come up with heterosexual day. It wasn't until we said #feminism that all the threatened men shot back with men's rights. And it wasn't until we said Black Lives Matter that all of our "friends" said All Lives Matter. So, is the real problem that you just want the minorities to stay silent so your perfect, narrow minded worlds don't change?
And let's get one thing straight.
We never said ONLY black lives matter. We said BLACK lives matter. For the people who continuously scream all lives matter; you're contradicting yourselves. How can all lives matter when the police take African American lives everyday without a second thought?
We know all lives matter but that is not the issue; we're not saying that they don't. We're saying our lives matter, too. A guy commented on my Instagram post, "Police have killed more white people in 2015 than black people." I think what he was trying to prove is that cops aren't just killing black people. But if you want to bring in the statistics, then you have to have all of the information.
There are about 240 million Caucasian people in the USA while there are only 42 million African American. So for every one white person murdered by the police, there is over 25 black people killed. So, it hits our community much harder, statistically.
We have every right to be angry. We have every right to be scared. A former congressman tweeted, "This is war" after the shooting at the BLM protest in Dallas. I couldn't help but laugh because it's BEEN a war. Caucasians just were never fighting it.
Our ancestors have BEEN fighting and dying for our freedom. Police have BEEN targeting and attacking black people. Sit down and listen to one of 2Pac songs if you don't believe me. Being treated unfairly is not something that is new to Black people. We've have BEEN asking for peace and justice. So, what do you expect us to do? Keep asking?
No. We're going to come together and continue to fight for what's ours! We're going to continue the work of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Junior, and everyone else who started this path before us.
We won't just roll over and be quiet. Not anymore. And if you decide not to stand with us then that it your choice. Just know that we will continue to try and get this "freedom" that we never really had.
