Opinion: Black Lives Matter
September 21, 2016
Recently, the issue of race relations and police brutality has dominated the news.
The Black Lives Matter movement at its core seeks to equate the values of lives of people of color and their white counterparts. Many white people however, see this voyage to and for equality as a movement that seeks to lessen them.
Black lives matter. This simple truth is often disputed because of the insecurities of a privileged majority. Black lives do matter, and the “all lives matter” movement represents socially acceptable racism.
People of color have historically faced awful discrimination and oppression explicitly because of their race. Africans in the 16th and 17th centuries were seen as lesser because of their skin color, and therefore taken as slaves by a white majority. Black lives have only had civil rights for 52 years, whereas white people have been privileged since our country was founded.
Still, to this day, African-Americans operate in a society that actively discriminates against them. Black people, according to dosomething.org, account for 13 percent of the U.S. population, and 14 percent of monthly drug users, yet 37 percent of people arrested for drug related offenses in America are black.
In New York City, 80 percent of the people stopped on the street by police officers, during the controversial period of “stop and frisk”, were black or Latino. White people accounted for a meager 8 percent of the people stopped by police.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission in 2010, revealed that African Americans typically receive sentences 10 percent longer, through the federal system, than whites who commit the same crime. According to dosomething.org, a poll conducted in 2012 found that 51% of Americans expressed some sort of anti Black sentiment, which was even greater than the 48% in 2008.
On the other hand, the “all lives matter” movement is merely racism disguised as equality. The crusades to equate the experiences of all races undermines the struggles of black people and other people of color, who have faced levels of widespread discrimination based on skin color that white people as a group have never faced in human history.
How can Caucasian people speak out and claim that racism against people of color is overblown or does not exist when they have never had to face racism in their lives? White people rarely face dormant discrimination and covert prejudice because of their race, which is a factor that people of color cannot control.
Ethnic minority activists and their allies have been consistently telling white people who preach “all lives matter” that what they’re saying only helps to draw attention away from the struggles their communities as a whole have faced.
These people have heard the outcry against the All Lives Matter movement and continue to act upon it. They say that all lives matter, and when lives protest against that, they ignore the feelings of these lives that they supposedly value.
If white people think all lives matter, then why do they not protest against police killings? These black lives that matter are being extinguished, and the all lives matter movement is not outraged at the fact.
If white people get more offended when their feelings are hurt by being called out, then when black people are murdered, do all lives really matter equally to them? Do all lives matter the same amount?
Elizabeth Thomas • Feb 4, 2017 at 4:48 pm
I agree with the editorial. How often do you hear about police shooting an unarmed white man in the back? The recent news stories show that a Black person takes their life in their hands just by going outside. The reason you don’t hear about unarmed white people being shot is that it almost never happens.
Black Lives Matter is a peaceful movement started by three women after Trayvon Martin was shot by George Zimmerman in Florida. Other people may have signs that say black lives matter but that doesn’t mean that those people are really members of the official organization, which has many chapters all over the country. If you investigate the people who are violent and carry those signs, you will find out that the movement is a peaceful one and that just because a Black person carries a sign doesn’t show that he belongs.
Sean Reardon • Sep 22, 2016 at 8:26 am
this is so good
A. Wytte Mann • Sep 21, 2016 at 11:50 pm
Black lives matter is an excuse to riot and loot. It is an organization, created specifically to divide America on racial lines, even further, and to fuel a fire that warms the hearths of the one percent.
There is no racial aspect to this; poor whites and poor blacks are killed at an equal rate, in the same areas.
This is a class issue, and if the proletariat, whether they are black, or white, stand divided, then divided they will fall.
Do not be a tool of the rich, don’t hate your fellow man, hate those who wrong you.
Alexander Oaks • Sep 22, 2016 at 10:22 am
As I cited before, a study by the Center for Police Equity in July revealed that police officers are 3 times more likely to use force against black people than they are against white people. So actually, this IS a race issue.
The police are not my fellow man. Unarmed black victims of murder are. Police have been wronging black people, and this is why I feel anger.
Black Lives Matter was designed to equate the value of white lives with the lives of people of color. This movement does not amplify poor race relations, it merely reveals the preexisting conditions that people who bask in privilege are unwilling and unable to acknowledge.
Wyatt Mann • Sep 22, 2016 at 3:51 pm
your study includes all whites, and all blacks. Most poor whites inhabit areas without a great amount of police activity in the first place, typically rural, areas include the Midwest, the Appalachian mountains, rural Virginia. Black Americans tend to live in dense urban areas, where there is far more police per capita. Per encounter with the police, black men are actually killed less then white men.
If you can’t see that the police are human, just like you, you are bigoted.
Black lives matter is a black supremacist movement. If they were really a movement of equality, they would be addressing black on black crime, the problem of native american oppression, and the poverty of all people.
Instead of being a movement modeled on Martin Luther King Jr’s Dream, it is the opposite of what he asked for. Instead of coming together, hand in hand, to work together to fix the problems, it asks that the blacks be treated differently then their white counterparts.
Steven • Sep 22, 2016 at 4:01 pm
Black lives matter actually does harm race relations, Its been the cause behind multiple riots such as those in Baltimore and Atlanta that cause widespread destruction It also has lead to the death of multiple police officers such as those in Dallas and Baton rouge. It’s one thing to speak out against police brutality but destroying citys and killing innocents is never acceptable
Laurenzo • Sep 22, 2016 at 3:18 pm
Check your history: 300 years of slavery and 100
Years of institutional racism – American whites divided this country along racial lines long before Black Lives Matter came along
Jane • Sep 22, 2016 at 9:52 pm
“Wyatt Mann”. As in “White Man”? Really?? That’s your screen name? Good grief.
Hey white man – BLM doesn’t ask for blacks to be treated “differently” – it asks for them to be treated “equally”. Also, being critical of the police doesn’t constitute bigotry – bigotry in any discussion about race means intolerance toward a racial or ethnic group Here, I’ll use the word in a sentence to make sure you get it: “Donald Trump regularly exhibits bigotry towards Mexicans and Muslims as part of a strategy to drum up support among white males who harbor racist views”. Get it?
Charley • Sep 21, 2016 at 9:51 pm
White people don’t protest the killings because generally, the person had been doing something suspicious. I also noticed you failed to mention the rate of black on black crime, which is much much larger than the amount of white on black crime that you claim is so prevalent in this society. Race has nothing to do with the killings, cops kill people of all races based on the individual’s actions. You fail to address any counterclaims in your argument, spouting your opinion and diminishing the opinions of others.
Alexander Oaks • Sep 22, 2016 at 10:14 am
Does suspicious activity warrant death? Every citizen in our country has a right to be innocent until proven guilty, and even in the small amount of cases where victims are thought to be doing “suspicious”, this does not strip them of their God given right to life. Secondly, a community’s problems does not open them up to violence from police. Every community faces difficulties, and to somehow justify police violence because of this is plain, ugly racism.
Race actually has everything to do with the killings. A study done by the Center for Policing Equity in July revealed that police officers are three times more likely to use force on black people than they are on white people.
I do not address counterclaims because they are rooted in misinformation, prejudice, and racism.
What YOU fail to do is support your discriminatory claim with any sort of facts, information, or statistics. If you cannot support your wrongful opinion, then I suggest keeping it to yourself.
Austin Smith • Nov 1, 2016 at 10:31 pm
So, rather than actually explain why you fail to bring up any counter arguments, you choose to simply say “all counter arguments are racist!” That is an extremely narrow-minded viewpoint, which certainly isn’t helping the message of acceptedness that the BLM movement supports. If you’re going to make an argument, countering any arguments against your own is a key part of the process, and by completely disregarding this crucial step you inadvertently weaken your argument as a whole.
Oh, and just as a small criticism, the term “wrongful opinion” is actually impossible. Opinions are, by definition, neither right not wrong.