It all started with a shot. A shot that killed 17-year old Trayvon Martin, and a trial that would eventually end in the acquittal of George Zimmerman. A shot that was heard around the nation and sparked a historical movement.

A quick Google search of "Black Lives Matter" leads to a website - blacklivesmatter.com - and on the "about" page, a simple reminder of the injustice a lot of black people face: "This is Not a Moment, but a Movement." While the movement has also sparked controversy, there are some very important lessons that can come from the movement itself.

IS WHITE PRIVILEGE REAL?

Of course! Yes, some people refuse to accept that they are extremely privileged if they are white, but that does not change the facts. Facts like 51% of black boys arrested are transferred from the juvenile system. Or that blacks have the highest unemployment rates in America. So yes, white privilege does exist and it always has in America. In a country where blacks were enslaved by whites, and the Constitution even declares slaves as 3/5ths of a person, things like racism and white privilege come naturally.

ALL LIVES MATTER?

The best way to go about the topic of "all lives matter" versus "black lives matter" is to simply use a comic.

It's pretty obvious that if a house was on fire, the firefighters would put the fire out to prevent it from spreading and save the house. It would be silly to assume that the firefighters would go to the neighboring houses and spray them with water while a house was going up in flames. So, basically, firefighters care equally for all houses, but tend to focus on the ones that are burning first.

So do all lives matter? Yes, they do. But because of the injustices brought to the black community, it is important to focus on black lives until their community gets justice. Just like a burning house, the black community has been set aflame with an insane amount of injustices that they have barely had any neutrality in there time in America.

AN ENDING REMARK

With America as the global hegemon, Americans have the duty of showing the world just how great of a country it can be by treating its racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities with the same amount of justice and equality as its dominant group. There is no better time to show the world that every single person deserves equality then now. The Black Lives Matter movement is an amazing opportunity to help push society and the world forward. When it comes down to it, humans are, in fact, just skin and bones. There is nothing underneath the surface that determines the "whiteness" or "blackness" of a person.