The Black Lives Matter movement was created to provide a platform to protest the killings of unarmed African Americans by police officers, and lobby for equal and equitable treatment for all. And since the movement’s birth, it has been met with tremendous backlash because it was bold, because it was the truth, and because it gave a voice to the disenfranchised and oppressed people of this country. But regardless, it has always been opposed with hatred. And that is where Blue Lives Matter comes in.
Blue Lives Matter, a counter movement, is meant to provide a platform to both glorify the police and improve public light on the police state of this country. The problem however is that those who side with this movement are wildly and dangerously misguided and further contribute to the racial tensions within this country. That is largely impart to the falsehood of believing that being pro Black Lives Matter means you hate the police. An oversimplified implication that holds no true value.
Being a Black Lives Matter activist and supporter does not mean you hate the police. It means you hate the police state of this country. You hate that systematically racist institutions that stain the name of good police officers with those who are racist and yet does nothing about it. It means you hate privatized prisons, the cruelly unfair justice system, and stereotypical and racist view society has of black people. It means you know Philando Castile, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, etc. shouldn’t have died and that their killers walked free.
And I get it. Maybe some don’t truly know that. If strictly conservative media outlets tell you that “Black Lives Matters groups are terrorists,” and that’s all you’ve ever known, you’d believe it. If your politicians tell you that a horrible act of violence was carried out in the name of Black Lives Matter in Dallas, when it was really just one insane individual, you’d believe it. But this is what propaganda is, and what hiding systematic oppression is. America was founded off of a racism which still strongly lingers in today’s society, and until we embrace that, we can never amend and move past it.
And to those who ignore it, you’re the problem. If you do not see that there is a system that creates a society in which black people can not only fail to thrive, but lose their lives simply for being black, you are a reckless endangerment to this country. You scream patriotism and honor of the flag yet you decreed the same flag and taint it with colors of blue, black, and white to support your own personal opinions. Where is the honor in that?
Blue Lives Matter is not a real thing. “Blue lives” are not real. But black lives are. And those lives are lost each and every day. We incarcerate and kill more citizens than any other country and we do that for a reason. And the more we ignore it, the more people die and the more we become divided. That’s what matters and that is the truth.
Feature Image by Louis Sahagun – LA Times
