This Is America.
Black deaths are piling up. Protests and protestors are being ignored or attacked. Our country is falling apart.
Before I begin, I would like to preface this by saying: I am not black, I am not even slightly dark, and I write this article as a Black Lives Matter ally. I do not and do not claim to know any of the struggles said groups go through. The following article is based on everything I’ve seen develop in the past month.
Racism is a commonly misused word. Some believe it refers to how African Americans were treated during the slavery era. Some believe it refers to when a white person is “rude” to other races. Racism, by definition, is discrimination against another race because of their physical appearance by the superior race, whites. To much of America, racism is a word that disappeared with slavery. A word that our president thinks is misused and is not real in our time. Maybe that is why many supremacists find it okay to be racist and violent, after all, their president is. The reality is, racism hasn’t disappeared since the time of slavery, it has only changed.
Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Nia Wilson, Philando Castille, Kieth Childress, Bettie Jones, Michael Noel, Michael Lee Marshall, Kevin Matthews, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd. Remember their names.
These are only nine out of the possible thousands who are victims of unjust deaths, numerous of which are from local police officers; the people whose job is to protect the community. How many more black lives are people going to allow to be cut short until something is done? Are they supposed to sit around and “peacefully” protest while blacks are being murdered? Murdered in the middle of the street by law enforcement when they did not commit any death-deserving crimes.
Ahmaud Arbery was jogging. He was running around the neighborhood as anyone would. A white man and his father, and I will not be using killers’ names because they don’t deserve the attention, shot him down because they assumed he was stealing from an abandoned house. George Floyd, the most recent murder, was accused of using a faux twenty-dollar bill. Now I ask you this: Is using a phony bill worth death?
Our constitution states all men are created equal, and everyone deserves liberty and justice. How are we supposed to believe this is true when black people are killed and attacked so often, and they never get the justice they deserve? Two months. Ahmaud Arbery’s killers were roaming free for nearly two months. It took days of protests across the country before George Floyd’s killer was charged, and still, the other three policemen are not being charged. Why do we fool ourselves to think America is the land of equality and freedom when we let white killers live their life after they murder a black man? But if a black man murdered someone, they would immediately be arrested and charged.
America is at a point where the norm in black communities is being afraid to let their children play outside, for they may be killed just for that. Is it normal to teach children to keep their hands on the dashboard if they are pulled over? To teach them not to wear hoods, not to walk fast, and always to keep their hands up. Why has it become a norm for the black community to fear for their lives when they leave the house? While white suburban homes are teaching their kids “please” and “thank you,” we have black communities teaching their kids to beg “don’t shoot.”
Let’s discuss the recent protests. The governor of Minnesota is calling said recent protests riots. I ask you, Tim Walz, as well as the rest of America, is unarmed protesting for the right to be treated equally after centuries of abuse, two hundred of which were a time of abusive slavery, a riot? But of course, when a group of armed white people is screaming for the right to lift state orders in the middle of a pandemic just so they can get a haircut, it is a protest. To Tim Walz again, on May 30, 2020, you said on national television that the people part of the PROTESTS do not share your values as well as the values of other Minnesotans. My response, as a white American: they don’t. They don’t share your values because clearly, your values include allowing law enforcement to hurt an entire minority, as well as using tear gas on protestors, which include children. If I, as a fifteen-year-old, can understand why a whole minority is fed up with all the racism they’ve endured for years upon years, but you, a government official cannot, there is undoubtedly something wrong with our country.
I don’t condone violence, and I do not agree with protestors destroying small and local businesses. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr always promoted peaceful protests and is probably rolling in his grave right now. Nonetheless, peaceful protests have done nothing. The black community and its allies have consistently performed peaceful demonstrations. They are ignored. Are we at a point in America where the way to get government officials’ attention in the United States is violence? That is why cars are being set on fire and why streets and cities are being destroyed. They want to be heard, want to be seen, and the only way to do that is to cause a mess. After all, Martin Luther King Jr. said it best, “Riots were the voice of the unheard.” It took two days of gradually violent protests to get government attention. The result? The national guard was sent, and protestors were called thugs. They were threatened to be shot if they continued their looting and protests. Here is our America.
Imagine if the protests never happened, if the video of George Floyd never went viral? But of course, George Floyd’s killer was only charged with third-degree murder and given a half a million-dollar bail. All this when the reality is he murdered a black man.To those who will say, “looting and vandalizing is a crime!”. Correct, and although it isn’t justified, neither is the cold-blooded murder of an innocent black man.
This is not the first time America has seen a week’s worth of rioting. A little less than thirty years ago, four predominately white policemen beat Rodney King, an unarmed black man, for a total of fifteen minutes. The video recording and its spread led to the city of Los Angeles protesting violently for five days straight, as King’s abusers were found non-guilty. The jury’s decision resulted in said riots that destroyed much of the city and leading to fifty deaths, 2,000 injuries, and one billion dollars worth of damage. All this destruction because King was beaten, unlike George Floyd, who was murdered. Why has this country not learned from previous mistakes? If something is not done soon, protests may wipe out our country before coronavirus does.
What is going on in the United States? This country is using the state police and national guard to defend George Floyd’s killer’s home, to pour teargas on protestors, to attack and arrest protestors, as well as journalists, allowing police officers to fight protestors for using their first amendment? African-Americans, as well as other people of color, are expected to go out and solve the problem. Why is that, though? Oppressors need to solve the issues they created from centuries ago, not the oppressed. George Floyd’s death was the spark that set off a bomb. There are protests of thousands all over the country, and even internationally. On May 30, 2020, protestors gathered outside the United States embassy in Berlin, Germany, demanding justice for George Floyd. The same occurred in London, England, and Copenhagen, Denmark, on May 31, 2020. All this anger, all of these protests, all of this could have all been avoided if law enforcement did something as simple as respecting a minority.
Look at the bottom images. The picture on the left is Patrick Crusius, who opened fire at a Walmart in 2019 and took twenty-three Latinx’ lives. The picture on the right is Dylann Roof, who attacked a black church in 2015 and took nine black lives. They are being arrested so calmly. No violence. No physical attack. But when an African American man is accused of using fake money, he is choked for nine minutes.
Why are people frightened by a person’s skin color? What about being black is threatening a white person? Being black is not a weapon. We as a country need to wake up and realize what is going on because, as of right now, the black community cannot breathe.
Black. Lives. Matter. The phrase does not say “matters more than….” which is what leads many to say “All lives matter.” On the contrary, the hashtag is meant to be seen as “Black lives matter TOO.” All races experience racism; it’s inevitable. So, do not say “All Lives Matter,” especially when our country can’t do something as simple as respecting a minority. What’s even more sickening is white Americans do not recognize their white privilege. Their skin color is a shield. They claim it doesn’t exist when the reality is if a car is pulled over, all people of color will be checked, but not the white person, even if they are the ones doing an illegal act. As of right now, it seems it’s acceptable to attack black men and women in the street; therefore, #BlackLivesMatter.
America’s racism led to Minneapolis in flames, not “thugs.”
America’s racism led to violent protests, not “distressed minds.”
America’s racism led to innocent black deaths.
This is America. America is not the land of the free, the land of equality, nor the land of liberty to all. America is a land where it is acceptable to kill black men in the middle of the street. It is acceptable to pour teargas and pepper spray on protestors, that include children. America is the land where racism is accepted and not dealt with accordingly, from Islamaphobia post 9/11 to general Xenophobia since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why is nobody, including our government, not seeing the frustration of blacks that have been lucid since the Los Angeles riots of 1992? More importantly, why are they being ignored for demanding equal rights? Questions that our government and its supporters are ignoring, for no reason other than racist beliefs.
If government officials want to end these protests, do something. Act and provide justice, because I and much of my country are at a point where we are sick and tired of constantly saying “rest in peace”, instead we want to see these black lives make it past the age of twenty. But hey, this is America, isn’t it?
BLACK. LIVES. MATTER.
Sign petitions, donate, speak up, get involved. Change only happens with us. Here are two petitions and other sources, but you can find many more just by searching:
