Hello, my name is Kyle Jason Northan and I am nineteen years old. I have been living in New Jersey all my life and never had experience any racial profiling by anyone. I rarely talk about it or think about it, but something happened to make me change my views on things in life. It all started with the multiple shootings that occurred in the last few months. In the beginning, I didn't really think about it and just hoped things would get better. Fast forward to 2016 it still hasn't gotten better. Now with this election coming in November, we really need to step back and think for a while.

First, black lives matter. When we all see the hashtag of #blacklivesmatter or #BLM for short, it is not a joke or something to joke about by saying #bluelivesmatter or #alllivesmatter right away. When people use that hashtag that black lives matter they are saying that we matter just as much as anyone else and should not be an outcast because of the color of our skin or past doings in life. We all can have some wrongs in life and for those wrong doings it just so happens that some just pay a price for it, and sometimes pay for a really long time. It's like sin; we all sin but God does not treat us any different from the past sins we did. He forgives and let's it go and guides us to doing better and not repeating it again. That is the same with us. We need to stop letting police officers take advantage of having weapons on hand and going to those quick and instead talking it out man to man or man to woman or whatever you are. When people say black lives matter, they are talking about how we matter and it bothers us when we see videos of our black people look bad because we never know the full story. The only people who know the true story are the victim and the defender. Don’t get me wrong, but people sometimes only record what they want or only get what they can get. Everyone that disagrees with us and says “black lives do not matter that is nothing but a big joke and if you don’t like this county then go back to where you came from." Do you forget that we are someone’s child, someone’s brother or sister, cousin or friend, aunt or uncle, mom or dad? Saying we do not matter and deserve to be killed is easy for someone who is not the victim. Until you are the victim, you will never understand someone's pain. Hearing that makes me upset because that is like being in school and the teacher randomly gives out A+’s and gives one student an F because he wants to and there is no reason at all for it. No one would care because it is not their grade going down, it is just the person who got the F. No one ever cares unless it is them. We are living in a fairytale and don’t want to wake up from this dream to see what the world is really like today. We hold back and are more divided instead of all making a stand toward this. I am not putting anyone down. I have white friends, black friends, Hispanic friends and all kinds of races as friends; but if something ever happened to me, I wonder who would be there for me. Who will care? Which story would they believe? We need to wake up because this is happening everyday and will continue to happen if no one puts their foot down and say we need a change and that we no longer need to outcast one group because of their past and be in the same predicament as blacks.

#ALLLIVESMATTER is what people normally like to write after seeing the hashtag for black lives matter. Let’s be honest: when you state that all lives matter after black lives matter, it is not the best thing you should take offense to. I say that not to offend any race, but I say to clear things up because using the hashtag #blacklivesmatter is not us saying that only black people matter and no one else matters but us; it is saying that black lives matter too. We matter as much as anyone else and should not be gunned down because of our crimes or just because they want to. We should not take advantages of the privileges that we have and need to focus on the bigger picture that if we all matter, then you should not feel offended when saying black lives matter but say “Yes we all matter so your lives should be equal to everyone else's." We all matter and we need to get away from the ignorance and see the world as a place to want to make better, not destroy it. Saying all lives matters, but agreeing with Donald Trump that all illegal immigrants need to go back to the country they are and build a wall so they can not come back is hypocritical. I question the reasons why you would think that way. They may not being getting killed, but they are still being outcast by a whole bunch of people and they do not deserve to be treated any different than anyone else in this world. So think about it before using that hashtag next time you see black lives matter, or protesting.

We all matter. You can be black, white, Hispanic or whatever your race might be, we all matter. We all have the same goals. For that, we need to stop shooting one another and stop basing everything off color because there is no such thing as only blacks are bad people. We have bad blacks, whites, hispanics, etc. We have good blacks, whites, Hispanics, etc. We all want good jobs, make good money, to live safely, but we cannot accomplish that if everyone keeps bringing each other down. I like learning about different cultures, I like my friends no matter the race and they matter to me. Do we really matter to you? Because I believe all lives matter, but do you?