Black Lives Matter. Only 3 words, yet they hold such strong political power and social power, as you see them on shirts, hashtags and on posters during “protests.” I am a firm believer that the Black Community has a legitimate gripe with society as people will still hold prejudices against their skin color on nothing more than ignorance. The ancestors of these people were treated as subhuman and there are cases where this still occurs to this day. Here’s my message to the Black Lives Matter community.

You’re actually doing more harm than good.

Whether it’s the rioting in their own cities such as the ones in Ferguson after the death of Michael Brown or the riots in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Grey, these activists are better at damaging their society than uplifting it. The Black Lives Matter movement was started after the Trayvon Martin case due to the skepticism of whether racism played a factor in both the shooting and the ruling. There is certainly legitimacy when it comes to the shooting as to whether George Zimmerman should’ve shot Trayvon Martin. But something that’s really interesting about this whole case, why wasn’t there any focus put on the wounds George Zimmerman received? His face was slammed into the pavement and no one cared. No one cared that Trayvon Martin wasn’t exactly the innocent individual everyone perceived him to be. The picture of him wearing his red t-shirt and a smile on his face was outdated. If the Black Lives Matter movement seeks to help rather than hurt, holding others accountable for their own actions would be a good place to start.

It started with a black teenager getting shot by a half German half Peruvian individual which seems to also get overlooked, and it really got going after a police officer became involved. Eric Garner was a man that had a bit of a checkered past when it came to the law as he was arrested on roughly 30 charges and while the officer had no business choking Eric Garner to death, Eric was resisting arrest. Resisting arrest when you already have a shaky history with prior arrests isn’t exactly in your best interest. But the message isn't to be careful with your actions, it's blame everything on the white man, it’s easier.

If there was ever a case where criticizing the actions of the victim was ever justified, it would be the case of Michael Brown. The Black Lives Matter movement only cares about the outcome, Michael Brown dying. They don’t care that he reached out for his gun, they don’t care about Michael Brown stealing cigarettes and being a teenager who didn’t make the best decisions. The Black Lives Matter movement isn’t focused on helping teenagers from making better decisions, their only focus is to cherry pick certain cases where racism may be involved just to promote white guilt. The Black Community has a very legitimate gripe and reason to be angry with society as there is still racism in people, deeply rooted from thinking African American as an inferior race, which they are not. If the Black Lives Matter movement would like to do more progress in eliminating inequality, my suggestion is to stop looking for a victim card to play and focus on uplifting people out of the culture that has plagued your community in the first place.