The debate over the Black Lives Matter movement has reached a boiling point. A misunderstanding, and in fact a mischaracterization, of the movement has been created by the media and right-wing fanatics. Television hosts such as Elisabeth Hasselback, Bill O' Reilly, and Megyn Kelly have all hinted at the "violent" and "hate group" characteristics of the movement.

On Bill O'Reilly's Fox News show, Republic Presidential candidate Donald Trump said of the Black Lives Matter Movement, "I think they're trouble, I think they are looking for trouble."

The Black Lives Matter campaign was actually created in response to the violence that black people receive. Opal Tometi, Patrisse Cullors, and Alicia Garza created the Black Lives Matter network as a platform for people to create, spark innovation, solidify, and foster the practice of Black Love.

The Black Lives Matter campaign is necessary because concern for the well-being of African Americans in this country continues to diminish. Black lives did not matter when black people were slaves and legally counted as three-fifths of a human being. Black lives still still do not matter when police officers can kill unarmed black men with impunity. There has been only two police officers charged after 25 unarmed Black men have been shot and killed by police officers so far this year. In the first case, an officer charged with manslaughter was a 73-year-old insurance executive, who'd served briefly as a police officer in the 1960s, and became a reserve sheriff's deputy in 2008. Charles Bates, in an undercover sting operation mistook his gun for his taser, shooting and killing Eric Harris. The second case involved a South Carolina police officer charged with murder. A bystander caught the interaction on video, as Michael Slager shot the 50-year-old man eight times in the back.

In an attempt to win political favor from law enforcement, Republican presidential candidates and conservative pundits have degraded and demonized the Black Lives Matter movement into an anti-police revolution. Conservative columnist Katie Pavlich exclaimed that "promotes the execution of police officers"

The media frenzy would have one believe that the uproar Black Lives Matter is creating is inciting people to go out and kill police officers. In reality, the shooting of police officers is down 16 percent this year. What the media does not display is the surge of black men and minorities in general killed by police officers.

The Cops' Lives Matter campaign that has recently sprung up all over social media is not a reasonable one, because cops' lives evidently do matter. When there is a manhunt that goes on for days and days using thousands of on- and off-duty officers, as well as volunteers, it is obvious that policemen's lives matter -- as they should. There is no doubt that cops' lives matter. The question is whether black lives matter, and therefore there is a need for a slogan, campaign, and movement. Thousands show up in honor one of their fallen cop coworkers, but after the murder of Michael Brown, his blood still stained the ground and only a cone stood in the place where his body lay for hours.

And while all lives should certainly matter, the need to specify and highlight black lives is clear. Unarmed Black men are disproportionately killed by police officers and are almost never charged and even more rarely convicted. Research found only 41 police officers charged with murder or manslaughter between 2005 and 2011, despite the FBI recording of several thousand justifiable homicides in the same time period.

Black Lives Matter is the Civil Rights Movement of the 21st century. The activists of the Civil Rights Movement saw the unfair mistreatment and did what was necessary in order to get justice. It is now our turn to stand up and seek justice and equality for our generation.

Justice is not an abstract concept. Justice is a living Mike Brown. Justice is Tamir playing outside again. Justice Darren Wilson in jail.
—DeRay Mckesson (@deray)

When America elected the first black man ever to be the president of the United States, the media began exclaiming we had reached a "post-racial society." We would have never thought that, with a black commander-in-chief and also a black top law enforcement officer in Attorney General Eric Holder and his successor Loretta Lynch, we would have such a crisis of racism permeating police departments throughout America. Yet somehow, 169 black men and women have been shot and killed by police this year without any justice. Somehow, black unemployment is twice that of whites. The gulf in disparity between black and white wealth is enormous. Black Lives Matter is an important rally cry and a needed movement. It was crucial in the 1960s and remains so today!