I often find myself at a loss for words when I watch and read about all the hate going on in America. I was fortunate enough to be born in a ‘melting pot’ of a city and have been surrounded by different types of people my entire life. I was raised in a household of white, middle class, cis-gendered liberals and will continue to go through life with white privilege. I will never know what it is like to be a person of color so I don’t want to speak on behalf of anyone but myself concerning the Black Lives Matter movement, this weekend’s past tragedies and what white people can do about their privilege.
Our society is notorious for white-washing the media. There has always been an under-representation of people of color and when they are portrayed in media, it’s often in a bad light. In almost any case that I have seen where a white person commits a crime, especially one who plays sports, their accomplishments are plastered all over the headlines with a nice school picture and their actions are excused. When a person of color commits a crime, we see a mug shot with headlines about their past and all their dirty laundry, with no further research about accomplishments they have made in their lives.
Institutionalized racism is extremely apparent in America; our country has a deeply rooted, violent, racist history. The KKK, all of the 1960s, confederate flags, slavery, the trail of tears and internment camps are only touching on the surface of racism in America. Muslims are still stigmatized as terrorists, Indigenous people have high levels of sexual abuse and violence, black people are ‘villianized,' the list goes on and on. Institutional racism begins at the K-12 level; black students are expelled at a rate three times higher than white students. Black students represent 16 percent of the student population, but 32-42 percent of students suspended or expelled. In comparison, white students also represent a similar range of between 31-40 percent of students suspended or expelled, but they are 51 percent of the student population. Whites and blacks represent about half of murder victims from year to year, but 77 percent of people who are executed killed a white person, while only 13 percent of death row executions represent those who killed a black person.
The Black Lives Matter movement is extremely important, now more than ever. I can’t help but notice media starting the All Lives Matter movement, though, while it is true, all lives matter, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, etc. matter, we need to be focused on black lives now because racial profiling and deaths of black people are acutely apparent. Philando Casitile, Tamir Rice, Jonathan Farrell, Trayvon Martin, Laquan McDonald, Samuel DuBose, Alton Stirling are just a few who have been murdered recently for no justifiable reason. All Lives Matter is a way of discounting what black people are going through and generalizing it into one large category. Nobody said #AllLivesMatter until we mentioned #BlackLivesMatter.
As a white person, if you’re reading this, constantly be aware of your privilege of being white. You can turn on the television and constantly see other white people, you can walk out of your door assured you won’t be seen as a criminal, you can have a generally positive relationship with the police and you can escape the violent stereotypes of our race. Educate yourself about racism, actively engage in community events about #BlackLivesMatter, work to end mass incarceration and white supremacy. #AllLivesMatter is irrelevant until #BlackLivesMatter.
