After the recorded deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, tensions between law enforcement and their communities have never been higher, and the response from anyone and everyone with a voice, in particular the supporters and opponents of the Black Lives Matter movement, reflect the same trend.
Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and members of the black community are justifiably outraged at the killing of their people by police officers for no reason and when other non-lethal means could have been implemented, and even more so when their movement is met with the #AllLivesMatter response that illustrates the ignorance of the unspoken but implied "too" in black lives matter. They are frustrated that racial disparities in the United States are not being discussed with as much passion, especially by the first black president, and with how their daily encounters with racism are being brushed under the rug.
Opponents of the BLM movement and/or those who don't understand what it means to face racial discrimination every day are recognizing the problem of police unfairly targeting minorities as one that is not as big of a problem of the black-on-black crime and gang violence in the black community, backing their claims with countless statistics on how black people kill members of their own race more than any police officer has or will in X amount of years, and how the problem within themselves, not a few "bad apples," should be solved first and foremost.
Both sides have valid points, but the crucial differences only make everyone's problems worse. Opponents use statistics to show that racism isn't as bad as the BLM movement claims or directing the blame onto the black community and tend to only accept them as the means of truth. Statistics have historically been a way for the elite to discuss lower classes, those deemed unable to report their own experiences, but not only can statistics be easily manipulated and misleading, the demand for them in civil causes like these is an overt distrust in someone's point of view and withholds from them the benefit of the doubt. Even if black-on-black crime is numerically worse than police killings, they fail to realize that most crime is interracial and that the select cases show a much larger problem in the country, the subconscious harboring of racism that results in discriminatory practices. Not all supporters, however, are productively seeking civil justice; they are looting, rioting, and killing police amongst their own for goodness sake, only added fuel to opponents point that they are treated the way they should be. They also need to realize that there are evil members in every community, including the black community and instead of defending for the entire race as a whole, which only perpetuates the divide, stick up against the ones that give the rest of the community a bad name, and not be so quick to stand up for someone just because of the color of their skin.
The political and racial divide in the country is growing every day, and both sides are to blame as they cannot stop blaming each other. Neither side knows what to do or how to treat each other, so they resort to what they know and act according to what they don't know. Racism is hate that is powered by fear which is powered by ignorance, and nothing will get better without everyone taking responsibility and strong leadership.
