Black Lives Matter More Than Ever

Today as I was watching the news and catching up on the happenings in our world during this very challenging time for us all in so many varying ways, I came across an interesting poll that was recently taken and in that poll it was revealed that a growing number of Americans believe that racial inequality and police brutality are real issues.

Of course, you will not hear that coming from President Trump or anyone who supports him, to them, black lives do not matter and never have.

Instead, Trump called Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players “Sons of bitches” for kneeling for justice and for demanding change on the issue of police killings of people of color, when he should have joined the movement and demanded change with the rest of us.

Trump and his supporters continue to spout the term “All Lives Matter” when we say that Black Lives Matter and this deflective comeback slogan that they use is disrespectful and rude to those in these communities who are suffering and in many cases are dying.

It is true that in Trump’s America during this time that we are in, black lives do not matter and will not matter while he is in office and his supporters are given the loud voice that they currently have. It is not true that Trump and his administration support racial equality as his administration has not taken any meaningful actions to further this cause.

This is why I say that black lives matter more now than they ever have and that is for the simple fact that they in fact do not matter to so many in this country and we see this on a daily basis with police brutality and racism being perpetrated throughout our land.

The fight for racial equality is not a new fight, but it is one that is needed more than ever.

There have been a number of horrific killings of innocent black people over the course of the last few months as well as over the last couple of years and these killings did not have to happen — not now and not ever did they have to take place.

Black people are exhausted. They are fed up. They are scared.

They have legitimate reasons for these feelings that have about life in this country and how they are treated by law enforcement and the various types of systems within our country like the school system, the workforce, in social settings, in healthcare, and of course within the justice system.

Why are they having these feelings of fear, doubt, exhaustion, and on down the line?

• Breonna Taylor
• George Floyd
• Jordan Edwards
• Philando Castile
• Freddie Gray
• Michael Brown
• Eric Garner
• Henry Dumas

This is why they have these feelings and why black people in this country simply feel exhausted.

Say their names.

There are so many names to say. There are so many more who have lost their lives at the hands of law enforcement than the short list of precious lives that I listed above.

The talking point from those in far right wing circles is that more white people are killed by the police than black people and this is a false equivalency if I have ever seen one and is something that is disrespectful to the many black people who perish at the hands of the police.

In a study conducted by the National Violent Death Reporting System over a ten year period found that while 52% of those killed by police were white, the number of victims killed by police due to no fault of their own were higher for black people than any other race.

34% of the victims were black and of the entire list it was black people who were the truly innocent victims of these incidents when we look at the whole picture, rather than the flat statistical figure that is presented in the chart of this study.

Many of the white victims (23%) were killed by suicide by cop and therefor were assumed to be armed while more than half of the black victims were unarmed and tried to comply with law enforcement orders and not resist as they were thought to have done.

There are also many of these fatal incidents involving law enforcement that fall into the undisclosed race category where the race of the victim was not known for this study, and it is this factor that should be mentioned when we talk about the issue as a whole.

So, the talking points that more white people are killed by law enforcement than black people and “All Lives Matter” are disrespectful and a false way of thinking of this problem and as a country we need to acknowledge the truth of this matter and once and for all admit that Black Lives Matter and this is a real problem within our justice system and in our country.

The law enforcement side of this is not the only way where black lives are being discounted in our country.

There are white supremacist individuals and groups in this country that have killed black people too and since Trump became president and pushed racial division within our nation, this has become more of a problem and continues to be a problem today.

Since his election to the presidency of the United States of America there has been a huge increase in racially motivated hate crimes and hate crimes as a whole have risen to a 16-year high since he was elected and the closer that we get to the election, the higher they get.

Under his leadership our nation has become more divided and the hate has become more prevalent and the crimes have increased against minorities in this country, especially crimes against Muslims, Mexicans, LGBTQ people, and many more, but of all of the groups, there is one group that has fallen victim the most and that is the black transgender population.

Especially, black transgender women.

This is why we say — Black Lives Matter and Black Trans Lives Matter!

We say they matter because they do matter and we fight for them because they are worth being fought for — especially during this challenging and divisive time in our country when hate and racism and bigotry are more prevalent than they have been in decades.

The police brutality situation is bad and ever since the brutal slaying of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri that outraged the nation, this has been a hot button issue as it should be, but the problem of racism and divisive hate is much bigger than these unjustified police killings that happened all of the time against black people.

The Black Lives Matter movement is so important because for so many black people in America, their lives do not matter and this administration has shown that by their comments and policies around hate crimes and the issue of policing in America.

Trump has even encouraged violence and has done so using racist language like when he calls the protesters “thugs” and “hoodlums” and the various other racial divisive things that he says about these people in the Black Lives Matter movement and those fighting for racial equality in America and when he does this then he becomes part of the problem, not the solution.

The problem of racism was always there and the solution has always been the same, but when you have a racist president and millions of racist supporters of that president as well as a system of racial injustice in policing and other areas of operation that goes back decades, then you have a very difficult situation to overcome.

Racism in America is a virus all in itself, especially in the new America we have under Trump

These are not new problems for us in America, but with the combination of the things that I just mentioned above at work, then you have a situation that becomes even more difficult to overcome and an enemy almost impossible to defeat.

This is the United States of America and the racism that keeps us stuck in our racially divisive past.

Even when we had a black president who brought people together or when we had someone like Bill Clinton who was loved by the black community and did great things for African Americans all across this country, it was difficult to truly unite as one country and defeat the decades old issue of racial inequality within the confines of our nation.

Now, with a president who calls white nationalists things like, “Very fine people” and encourages racism through his words and actions and racist policies, it becomes even more of a challenge to defeat the disease of racism and all that comes with it.

If you ask me, the fact that Barack Obama became president was one of the things that enraged many white people in this country and brought about the rise in racism and the need for a group like Black Lives Matter and in turn, gave us Donald Trump.

They did not like a black man being President of the United States and because he was elected to the highest office in the land, these people who we now know as Trump supporters woke up the sleeping giant of racism and not only gave us the most racist president in history, but reignited a culture of racism that we thought was largely gone.

Yes, we know that racism has always existed and will always be an American institution but once we got Trump in office, racist language not only was a thing that we heard in the deep south but it was something we saw being spoken from the Rose Garden.

The president would be saying things like “thugs” and calling African countries things like “shithole countries” and that is not even to mention the racism he has against various types of immigrants ranging from the Chinese to Mexicans and on down the line.

Racism became a presidential policy once Trump came along and because of this, it went and gave so many in this country permission to be racist towards others and even take that racism to the level of violence and murder, like what we have seen numerous times throughout his time in office over these last four years.

This president and those who support him have done a number on the issue of racial equality and he has set race relations back a long time and if we do not vote him out and switch the conversation up, then we could be set back many decades on race relations — make no mistake.

It is time to once and for all declare that— BLACK LIVES MATTER!

Black lives are important, black lives are valuable, black lives deserve respect and dignity and yes, Black Lives Matter.

Trump will not utter those words and because of that, his supporters will not say the term or even support the cause and that is a shame because the Black Lives Matter movement should not be a political term, this should for sure not be something that is controversial, and the term and the group should not be attacked like they are.

The fact that this is a controversial thing and that there are lies told about this group that is attacked so much is yet another reason for the term.

Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter.

All lives will not matter until BLACK LIVES MATTER.

Whether we are talking about the injustice in the court and correctional systems relating to racial inequality, the injustice of police brutality and the racist killings of black people, or the overall racism and hate crimes that are committed against people of color in this country, one thing is for sure and that is that change must happen.

White people need to join the cause and fight for this issue, we need to say it loud and say it often and that is that black lives do matter — they matter today and tomorrow and they matter every other day too and until our government and society accepts that , then change will not happen.

We are the change and we will be the solution if we stand up or take a knee and demand that we go down a different path once and for all!