Hi, my name is Carolina and I stand up for Black Lives Matter. This past week, we have seen various tragedies happening. They all have a single similarity, racism. Racism has plagued our country, our society, and our world since the beginning of time. Although this is true, this does not allow us to just sit by and let the problem fester. It is time to end racism, as much as we can, so we can all live in peace and prosperity.

I'm not new to racism. Because of my ethnicity, I have always been a source of racist jokes, derogatory names like "wetback", and so on. Unfortunately, I have also had to witness countless of people, off all different races and ethnicities, use such things to undermine a person's value or worth in society. And i'm tired of it. I'm tired of hearing that the color of a person's skin defines who they are as person. You refuse to look past these stereotypes and judge and criticize them without even knowing who they are. Today, this has become an epidemic in our country and society.

We as US citizens, residents, or newcomers, need to unite together against this and create a better America. We need to stop looking the other way, and truly recognize that this is a huge social justice problem. I'm tired of seeing innocent black men, women, and children being undermined because of who they are. It's come to a point that they can no longer feel safe in this country out of fear that a white police officer can come and kill them. That's a problem and that's the reality. In the past couple of years, the Black Lives Matter movement has raised awareness on just how much racism is apparent in our society, no matter how much we deny it. It has allowed people of the black community to come and unite as one to fight this epidemic. This is a great thing. It's a positive movement in trying to end racism.

Although this movement is titled "Black Lives", people assume that it is noninclusive off all the different races and ethnicities represented in this country. That is false. Of course all lives matter. Everyone on this Earth should not be discriminated against because of what they look like. But the people who claim that the Black Lives Movement is aggressive or vengeful against others, are completely out of line. To those people I say, please look at yourself. You are minimizing the fears of an entire community. You're basically telling them that what they feel is completely irrelevant. You're telling them that they're not worth it. These people who stand against the movement are saying such things because they can't understand it because it has never been a real threat to them. And for that you're privileged. Accept your privilege and be thankful you don't have to deal with these racist situations. But don't undermine anyone else's fears because you don't share them. Don't turn your back on facts and on the tragedies that have happened.

Again, all lives matter on this Earth. But it is not our responsibility to decide that one community's fears are less of an issue than others because they're not the same. We should not be divided right now. We all need to come together and unite in order to make America better, more accepting, more loving. It's time to truly take a stand and not be afraid of the consequences. It is courage like this that made MLK and Cesar Chavez great activists of their times and of today. Let's follow their examples and take a stand for what we believe in.