“Black Lives Matter” was a slogan created two years ago around the death of Trayvon Martin in Florida. And then a year later, with the death Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri, many started to address the issues involving police brutality. The world then watched as other videos surfaced of police brutality. Shortly after the slogan “Black Lives Matter” was created, “All Lives Matter” came into focus. Indeed, all lives do matter, but is it insensitive to say “All lives matter” in a time of police brutality, and ongoing racial inequality? The answer is yes. “All lives matter” is missing the point completely. It isn’t the fact that everyone matters, it’s the fact that black lives, and even all minorities seem undervalued in the society we live in today.
I live in a state that has predominantly white people, 93.9% to be exact. We live in a country that is 77.1% white. How can we say that all lives matter when this is a white country? Black lives matter to me does not exclude other races. To me, it speaks for all minorities in this country. It infuriates me to hear people say that “All lives matter”. We have such a huge gap between white and black people in this country. Many of us don’t see the struggles that many minorities are born into. I have encountered many white, privileged students and adults who talk about how “Black Lives Matter” should not exist. I see in the news how black football players are ridiculed for kneeling during the national anthem. What do we know as sheltered, white privileged Americans? We put out hands on our heart and salute a flag that symbolizes freedom for all, but how can you think that this country is really free?
To you white privileged people out there, I can see how you would see that. But for the rest of us what are we really saluting? Are we saluting police brutality? Oppression for blacks? Racial Inequality? It’s easy for the 77.1% of white people in our country to be ignorant about what’s really happening between the minorities and white people. Being a minority, you are labeled “non white”, as if being white makes you inferior. AS if white is the greater race and everyone else is just labeled as a race of “non white.” I can not sit here and stand behind the values of America today. America is labeled to many as the greatest country in the world, but are we? I see our country still set back with the amount of racial inequality still happening. I refuse to let myself think that this country is the “land of the free and the home of the brave” when mothers are afraid to let their kids play outside in fear that their color might lead to violence inflicted on them.
We can’t resolve this issue by trying to make it a problem about everyone. This is a serious problem between the “the whites and the non whites” as well as the inequality in America that which can’t be just swept under the rug. Nor can it be renamed to be made to involve that white lives matter just as much in this case. The problem is the oppression of minorities in America, and the ongoing mistreatment towards specifically African Americans. We need to wake up and realize that this country is far from what is perceive, and that Black Lives DO matter.
