I first noticed your message when I was walking to Memoir class. These little posters, where we write ideas, have so far been a hit. Also, when we do it, we get snacks. Everyone likes snacks.
For the past week or so, the idea board's prompt was to write, "What are you passionate about?" And wow, there were some great answers. "Female Empowerment." "Sustainability." "Ending Rape Culture on GC Campus."
And then there's you. In big, blue lettering: "#BLUELIVESMATTER."
A smaller, #alllivesmatter was next to it.
As a fellow student at this college, your colleague, as it were, I am ashamed of you. Your campus and student body should be ashamed of you.
Yes, you have a right to believe what you do. But when you write "BLUELIVESMATTER" on a poster where the prompt is, "What are you passionate about?" you are essentially saying the following: "I am passionate about being a racist who fails to acknowledge the very real and systemic problem this country has."
I don't think police officers should be killed on the job. They have a right to be safe and come home to their families. But that doesn't mean that Eric Garner lost the right to, you know, be alive, because he was selling cigarettes.
Tyre King was 13. Tamir Rice was 12.
Just read this. Read this whole thing. It's just a list. No "politically correct" biases, no commentary. Just a list. Tell me then if you don't think people getting killed by police in this country is a problem.
At the time of this writing, there have been 853 people killed by police just in this year. By the time of publication, this number will be even more. At this rate, over 1000 people will be dead by the end of this year because they were shot by police. In comparison, I would like to point you to the fact that the UK's police force only killed 52 people over the course of the entire 20th century. So far, in September of this year, US cops have killed 72.
That is one month. Against one century.
And one more thing, #bluelivesmatter person: your message automatically threatens the safety of people of color on this campus. This is supposed to be a place they can study. By saying #bluelivesmatter you are telling them, and those of us who consider ourselves supporters of the #blacklivesmatter movement, that the struggles their community is going through simply do not matter.
People of color in this country have gone through enough. For black Americans, the legacy of their family often includes slavery. It includes Jim Crow. But racism did not go away with the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It is still here. The passing of a law will never make prejudices vanish overnight.
We white people like to be all sad and downtrodden when someone whose rights we took away start talking about how they want rights back. That's where #alllivesmatter and #bluelivesmatter come from. Police have not had their rights as human beings taken away. Give me evidence of that. I have seen none.
People are rioting. And they have a right to. Selma, Ferguson, Baltimore, Charlotte-- they are all a part of a narrative of civil unrest, an anger at the oppressive structures our society depends on. And I am going to stand with them until they get what they deserve.
So, #bluelivesmatter person-- Explain yourself. Explain why you would ever want to endanger the well-being of your fellow students. Because #blacklivesmatter has never meant #whitelivesdontmatter. It means simply, this: Black. Lives. Matter. So start acting like it.
Explain your reasoning. Now. I'm listening.
