“Our righteous anger can be transformed into more justice and more peace.”
—President Obama, July 12, 2016
I used to wake up every morning to the same feeling. I would bask in the morning’s quietness, feeling a sense of peace -- something living in the first world allows us to take for granted -- and I used to avoid the news. News was too grimy, too real and so consistently melancholy that I refused to allow it to interfere with my morning euphoria. The first thing I did, like many other millennials, was check my phone. I expected text messages from friends, a social media update, or a dreaded missed call from my mother. The very definition of morning to me consisted of a period of calmness, right before the storm of the day takes over and pushed all of my priorities back.
That peaceful morning in America is gone.
Harsh reality has come knocking on all of our doors, and we’ve been forced to wake up, take a stand, to try and make a difference in this country. The feeling I now dread every morning is a feeling of insecurity, and I’m unsure as to where we as a country can go next.
I used to lay in bed and carelessly check the digital facets of my social life and now, I’m constantly glued to the news, expecting to hear about a shooting that took place in a city near me. Hell, the worst attack on law enforcement since 9/11 happened in my own backyard. Dallas, the city I call home, is the center of one of the most divided moments in our nation’s history.
It was supposed to be a peaceful protest. Following the wrongful deaths of Alton Sterling and Filando Castile, many gathered in Dallas for a single purpose -- BlackLivesMatter. These people did not advocate violence, but love; not war, but peace, and they didn’t get it. Instead, we saw a widening in the gap, a further misunderstanding of the sole purpose of BlackLivesMatter, and a huge setback to the progress we had been working towards for so long.
A Washington Post article claims that Blacks are two-and-a-half times more likely to be shot and killed by police than whites -- over double the likelihood based on something like race. People are going to do their research and find information from articles such as zerohedge's “Breakdown of US Citizens Killed By Cops in 2016,” which shows that 238 whites have been killed by police as of July 10, 2016, whereas 123 Blacks and 79 Hispanics were killed. This information, on paper, clearly shows that more whites have been killed so far this than any other race in America, but according to the United States Census Bureau, the United States consists of 77.1 percent Whites. A smaller percentage of Whites, as a matter of fact, are killed each year by police than blacks. This website also doesn’t take into consideration factors that led to the deaths of these civilians -- Filando Castile’s murder was recorded, and he was reaching for his wallet after clearly verbalizing that he had a license concealed weapon in the vehicle -- whether they were violent or nonviolent offenders, and whether they happened to be a threat at the time.
It isn’t a movement that promotes Black supremacy -- because that literally is not a common or possibly persistent issue in this nation. Supremacy hints at using systematic racism as a means of progression, and Blacks are still the minority in this nation -- they only make up 13.3 percent of the total US Population -- yet they account for almost a fourth of the people killed each year by police.
You can still support BlackLivesMatter and support the lives and safety of police -- supporting one doesn’t have to mean that you don’t support the other, and it shouldn’t be that way. People are completely wrapped up in having things a clear cut way, so wrapped up, as a matter of fact, that they forget the facts, what’s important, and what isn’t. Until you walk outside and fear for your life, for your child’s life, uncertain of what the future holds for you, then you have no room to talk, no room to belittle an entire culture, race, and their struggles. As much as you think you do, you will never understand what it is like to hold your dead child after being wrongfully shot, what it’s like to see your family torn apart after being violently deported, or what it’s like to know your spouse was an officer protecting protesters in what was supposed to be a peaceful coalition, and was shot and killed anyways. Unless you’ve lived it, you don’t know it, and it’s insulting to those that live it everyday for you to act like you do and belittle their issues.
It’s so easy to tell someone to respect authorities, to obey and comply with orders -- but almost every instance where an unarmed black person has been killed involved a hostile interaction from the side of law enforcement as well. Tamir Rice had a toy gun, which was obvious from the markings on it, Michael Brown had his hands up -- “don’t shoot” and Trayvon Martin had a few ingredients for codeine on him which, again, warranted no shooting and killing. It’s funny how people argue that ‘if *insert name here* would have just not acted a certain way, then they wouldn’t have been killed.’ The last time I checked, non-violent threats never warrant a violent response. A mouthy teenager shouldn’t be thrown to the ground, or lose his or her life over some verbal altercation. People seem to forget that Martin, Brown, and Rice were all under the age of 20, and still had their whole lives ahead of them. They should not have suffered the way they did, and their lives should not have been taken so soon. Their lost lives started and built upon the BlackLivesMatter movement, which advocated for an end to senseless police killings in the nation. The Ferguson and Baltimore riots did see violent protests, property damage, and theft, but should not have been mistaken as the motive for the mission. The ones who used the riots as an advantage to do these things do not represent advocates for the movement as an entirety, but represent just how a select few can turn a positively-geared situation into a holistically negative one. I’ve heard a lot of disgusting responses to both the BlackLivesMatter movement and the BackTheBlue movement. Let me reiterate: they’re different worlds -- you can support the safety of everyone -- and supporting one does not mean that you cannot support the other. The police in Dallas that day died doing one of them most heroic and selfless things I have ever seen. They deserve to be remembered.
It has been just over a week since the tragedy struck in Dallas. All guards are up, parties are divided, and people are actually discussing the topic of whose life matters the most in America. United is in the name of our country -- it’s in everything we’re supposed to demonstrate, believe in, work for, think about -- but we’re not living up to that name.
It’s times like these where we revisit history, where we look back on all the wrongdoings we as Americans have committed. All Lives Matter wasn’t around when President Jackson implemented the Indian Removal Act, killing over a fourth of the Native American Population. They haven’t mattered in wake of the Syrian Refugee Crisis, the Immigration Crisis, or even towards Black Lives in America. Too many times have I read about an unarmed minority being shot and killed for no good reason. Too many times have I felt the heartbreak of listening to violent deportation stories, while remembering that my family could have very well suffered from just this, and too many times have I heard the statement “All Lives Matter.” If 49 gay men were killed in Orlando, and nothing was done about it, then what will it take for the United States to actually unite and do something towards change? Something needs to be done, something needs to be changed, and this isn’t OK anymore. We shouldn’t lose each other, hurt one another, and go for blood every chance we get. We inhabit this earth together, we are a collective population, and we need to work towards something better -- equality, safer actions by police and towards police, and a better recognition of the daily struggles in America. No one should have to die anymore. You should matter in America, regardless of your race, world views, religion, physical features, etc. When people have to fight to be recognized, then there’s a problem. Silencing their voices with the stale and vague AllLivesMatter movement was another setback. All lives do matter, in fact, but they aren’t all being cherished. This past Tuesday, July 12, President Obama spoke at the funerals of the Dallas officers shot and killed just five days prior. His speech was beautiful, as he sought to both address the issues of racism in America, while creating a clear cut view of the issues our nation faces. The persistence of mass shoots in our nation grows and grows each month, and we must all stand together and make a difference. It’s not about guns, about angering a particular group of people, or even denouncing white lives as unimportant. It’s about taking a stand and uniting ourselves again. If we plan on persevering, on fighting this interpersonal battle, we must stand together, love one another, cherish one another, recognize each other’s problems and lift each other up. As I said before, we are a collective; we are the United States, and we need to do better. We are better than this.
