Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
It is folly to pretend to understand what people in the Black community are going through. There comes a point where ignorance isn’t bliss and this is one of those instances. This problem of racism is something that exists within other communities of color too.
‘All lives matter’. It’s true; each and every life matters, and the Black Lives Matter movement isn’t denying that. In fact, the main aim of the movement is to demand the justice that the Black community rightly deserves, after being maltreated and subdued just because people can’t look past the color of their skin. With Black people 2.5 times more likely than white people to be killed by the police, it’s time we turn our attention towards helping them achieve their basic human rights.
While protests aren’t an excuse for violence and malicious lootings, they are meant to be a medium through which people can show disapproval and contempt towards the many atrocities committed against the black community. It’s important that we harness our fundamental right of freedom of speech to make sure we don’t end up making the dire mistakes we once made in the past. No one should be discriminated against because people see the color of their skin as a ‘threat’.
People need to tear past the veil of racism that has plagued their mind and be able to treat each and every person the same way they would want to be treated and see that it is not the color of the person’s skin that makes them who they are.
On the 25th of May, George Perry Floyd Jr. was killed by police officer Derrick Chauvin for allegedly using a 20$ counterfeit note at a store. George Floyd and Breonna Taylor are just a few names amongst the thousands that have lost their lives due to police brutality and hate crimes committed against Black people.