I do not wish to blame all those who blame. I have no doubt that they sincerely believe everything they say, and that they say it with such urgency and force because they really do care. (I may be wrong, of course, but what good would it do me to think in any other way?) But we really have to ask ourselves, is what they're doing, by telling us who to blame, a way of trying to make things better for us, or for them?
BLM does not just
stand for "black people only," nor is it simply a movement protesting only police shootings and brutality. It is a response of a people who have always borne societies ills the most. During the subprime housing crises, for example, blacks lost their homes at twice the rate of any other race, and today, they have toughest time getting a mortgage. In 2015, the black unemployment rate was 9.2%, more than twice the unemployment rates for whites, at 4.4%. And even though it is not always the case that blacks are the most killed or the worst treated race in our society, that doesn't mean they should therefore be thankful that things are not worse.
Simply put, it is a dying man's plea to the man whose hands have been clenched around his throat, that his life matters to him, even when it so clearly doesn't seem to matter to anyone else.
When a white person like Brock Turner is caught in the act of raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster, and given only 6 months in prison, or when a rich white kid only gets a two year jail sentence for killing 4 people in a drunk driving accident - because he was brought up in such wealth and luxury that he now suffers from "affluenza" - while non whites are more likely to be jailed and receive longer prison sentences than their white counterparts who have been convicted of the same crimes, as well as being victimized by police brutality far more often than whites, it's impossible for even an eighth grade child to look at this country and conclude that a black life matters as much as a white life.
Simply put, it is a dying man's plea to the man whose hands have been clenched around his throat, that his life matters to him, even when it so clearly doesn't seem to matter to anyone else.
When a white person like Brock Turner is caught in the act of raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster, and given only 6 months in prison, or when a rich white kid only gets a two year jail sentence for killing 4 people in a drunk driving accident - because he was brought up in such wealth and luxury that he now suffers from "affluenza" - while non whites are more likely to be jailed and receive longer prison sentences than their white counterparts who have been convicted of the same crimes, as well as being victimized by police brutality far more often than whites, it's impossible for even an eighth grade child to look at this country and conclude that a black life matters as much as a white life.
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