The events that took place during the past week are unfortunately not surprising, and they are gaining full attention from the President of the United States and famous individuals such as Beyoncé. She posted about this on her website. Drake also posted on his Instagram. Everyone is talking because they want to see a change. Social media platforms have given us the availability to see outraged reactions of famous athletes, politicians, and our role models due to the death of both Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. They were both tragically shot and killed by police early last week.

This incident has left people with heavy hearts for the men who lost their lives and their family and friends who loved them dearly. It has also increasingly infuriated citizens of the United States of America because people are scared. I’ve read several articles and almost at least once they bring up the fact that we need a change for the younger generation. Due to that fact that there is a problem, yes, there does need to be an adjustment. We don’t need to tweak some rules in the justice system – we can’t do this and do that. As Americans we owe it to our selves, to our family and friends, and to our future to use full force and make sure we are doing what’s best for our country. What is best for our country? Well it’s positively not what’s going on right now.

We need to reach out to people who have power and we need to tell them what we want. We don’t want #BlackLivesMatter to keep trending on every social media platform for the rest of our lives. We need to make sure every citizen of America and every foot to step on to United States soil knows that black lives matter because all of us matter. No matter what gender, sexual orientation, age, or race you are...YOU matter. In the CNN article, “Obama on police shootings: ‘This is not just a black issue’”, Kevin Liptak and Athena Jones explain President Obama’s feelings on the issue and he claims, ‘“…It is to say that, as a nation, we can and must do better to institute the best practices that reduce the appearance or reality of racial bias in law enforcement’”. In other words he is saying there is a problem. We have recognized the obstacle and he explains the apparent issue when he states, “‘But right now, the data shows that black folks are more vulnerable to these kinds of incidents. There is a particular burden that is being placed on a group of our fellow citizens’”. We can look at the data and interpret that how we want to. Numbers don’t lie. We can continue to fight over statistics and gather as much data as we want, but at the end of the day we always have to fight with facts; therefore, we will continue to fight peacefully, efficiently, and powerfully to make a change.

We have the President of the United States in front of us speaking about the issue but there are thousands of others whose voices matter – whose voices we look up to. The article on CNN, “Beyoncé pays tribute to Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at concert”, by Donie O'Sullivan and Megan Thomas reads that Beyoncé made her fans at her concert in Scotland aware of the gentlemen who were killed during the past including the previous week. Making people aware of the situation is what everyone needs to do. Beyoncé also posted on her website something that is grabbing attention from many which includes, “We’re going to stand up as a community and fight against anyone who believes that murder or any violent action by those who are sworn to protect us should consistently go unpunished”. Simply put, there is going to be a change.