What is BLM?

The BLM, Black Lives Matter, campaign was founded to support the equal treatment of and to end the discrimination of black people in America. One of the main focuses of the BLM campaign is to end police brutality based on racial discrimination. Everyday more and more unarmed black males are being shot and/or killed because a white police officer assumes the worst. People choose to ignore the statistics and say “it doesn't happen very much.” You can't ignore the facts. The list is long.
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Philando Castile
Alton Sterling
Michael Brown
Trayvon Martin
Eric Garner
Dontre Hamilton
John Crawford III
Dante Parker

And over 150 more unarmed black men in the last two years have been shot and killed by white police officers who assumed the worst because of the color of their skin. But the thing is, the cops are not convicted of murder. Another focus of the campaign is to put an end to systematic racism and white privilege. Systemic racism is about the way racism is built right into every level of our society. From the way people are hired for jobs to the way black children are treated and dealt with at school. According to one study, blacks with college degrees are twice as likely to be unemployed as all other graduates and as one study found, job applicants with white-sounding names get called back about 50% more of the time than applicants with black-sounding names, even when they have the same exact resumes.  And in our school systems, when all age groups are examined, black students are three times more likely to be suspended than white students, even when their infractions are similar. Even in our criminal justice system, if a black person and a white person each commit a crime, the black person has a better chance of being arrested. It’s also true that, once arrested, black people are convicted more often than white people. Systematic racism is a widespread and corrosive issue in the American society.

    At least once a week I have debated with people over the BLM campaign. So many people do not understand the importance of this cause. So many people get away with crimes just because they are black. And so many people get wrongfully tried just because they are black. For example, the rapist, Brock Turner, only got 6 months in prison for raping an unconscious drunk girl because “he had a bright future ahead of him”. But I'm willing to bet my last dollar that if he was black, he'd be sentenced way more than 6 months and he certainly wouldn't have gotten out in 3 months for good behaviour. Black Lives Matter is not “black lives matter more”. Yes, all over matter, but right now, all lives are not being attacked based on skin tone. I’d like to close with a quote: “We should seek not a world where the black and white race live in harmony, but a world in which the terms black and white have no real political meaning.”  - Ta-Nahisi Coates

Akira