The #BlackLivesMatter Movement came to be as a response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who murdered Trayvon Martin.
I cannot fathom why so many people are against a movement that seeks to end systematic racism and affirm the lives of all Black people.
That includes Black queer and trans people, disabled Black people, undocumented Black people, Black people with records, Black women, and all other Black lives in general.
What exactly could you have against a movement that wants Black lives to stop being systematically targeted?
Unless you agree with continuing to systematic target Black people, it doesn’t really make sense for you to be against this movement.
In fact, I want to ask a serious question before I begin…
For those of you who are so outraged by the BLM and have no problem verbalizing this outrage… why have you never been this outraged by ,or verbalized this same outrage towards, the KKK?
Something to think about.
. . .
People think that the Black Lives Matter Movement is against the police
I commonly see people saying that BLM movement is against all police officers, but that is simply not true.
Cops are people too. The BLM movement is not a movement against people. It is not an anti-police movement. The BLM movement is against police brutality.
You could say they are pro-police-accountability.
However, the vast majority of police officers are complicit in a system that not only criminalizes and targets Black lives, but also persuades the rest of the world to view Black people as dangerous criminals.
Being complicit in this system means that those police officers are okay with lessening the value of a Black life.
That’s unacceptable.
By simply question why a police officer is stopping them or attempting to arrest them, that Black person’s life becomes at risk. The police consider that to be “resisting.”
It is our right as people to inquire about why a police officer is stopping or arresting us. That is a right regardless of the color of your skin. It isn’t resisting anything.
Black people shouldn’t be expected to be nice to police officers who are harassing them based on their color of their skin.
The police should be held accountable for that very behavior because it as a result of that behavior that so many Black people have been killed by the police.
The presence of the police shouldn’t make someone feel less safe in their community.
. . .
People think that the Black Lives Matter Movement hates white people
I am not sure how this misconception even came to be, considering the vast amount of people, such as myself, who support the movement.
The statement itself, “Black lives matter,” is not anti-white.
In fact, the statement comes with an implied “too.”
The movement is about inclusivity, not exclusivity.
The fact of the matter is that the White people who continue to question a movement that is about the affirmation of Black lives and claim it to be anti-white, are essentially saying that for White lives to matter, Black lives cannot.
That sounds just like white supremacy to me.
The Black Lives Matter Movement seeks to do things like address the increasing racial wealth and income gaps, fix the failing public school system, address issues of housing inequality, and dismantle the racist prison industrial complex.
What exactly do those examples of the things that the BLM intends to do, have to do with hating White people?
The system already treats White people as if their lives have more value.
It’s time to treat Black lives as if they are valuable too.
Because they are.
. . .
People think that the Black Lives Matter Movement doesn’t care about black-on-black crime.
I find this one to be completely ridiculous.
First of all, black-on-black crime is something that Black leaders and Black people in general take very serious.
Second, some White people really believe that Black people are more inherently violent than White people.
That belief, alone, is indication of a system that targets Black people.
Because those White people have been lead to believe something about Black people that is simple not true… in order for them to think a Black life is less valuable, which is exactly what the racist system wants to happen.
While many of the murders of Black people are done by other Black people, so are the murders of White people.
In fact, 83% of white murder victims were killed by other White people. So, that argument is not only ignorant, it is also wrong.
This continued focus on black-on-black crime is just the racists attempt to divert the issues at hand.
White supremacists love to claim the argument that Black people have no right to be outraged about police brutality because their communities just have a crime problem.
Maybe, instead of demonizing people, we should focus on changing the corrupt, racist system.
Racists don’t want to acknowledge that the system is racist because then they have to face themselves and be held accountable for their hatred.
. . .
Stop asking ridiculous questions like:
Do Black lives matter more than White lives?
Nobody ever suggested that. The movement just wants Black lives to matter, too.
Why can’t Black people simply address the crime in their own communities?
Maybe, if you stop oppressing them, they can solve that issue. All races have criminals, but it is the racist system that has created a cycle of the criminalization of Black people that is very hard to break.
We want change. We want police accountability.
We want Black lives to matter as much as the lives of White people. In this system, they don’t.
It is past time that they do.
If you are one of the people against BLM but saying you aren’t racist, stop fighting against a movement that just wants Black lives to matter, too.
Honestly, is there really anything wrong with wanting that?
. . .
Thank you for reading!
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This post was previously published on Medium.
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