Why is #BlackLivesMatter so controversial?

Black Lives Matter (BLM for short) is an organization that voices social injustice and institutional racism that is alive and well today in the United States. And it appears to me that whenever a controversial shooting such as the one that left Philando Castile dead, many Americans (in particular White Americans) say “all lives matter.” Yes, indeed, all lives do matter. But you do not run into a cancer fundraiser saying “there are other diseases too!”

A commonly thrown statistic is the one that more white Americans die from being shot by police than black Americans. But why is this statistic even noteworthy? Nearly 7 in 10 Americans are white. If more black Americans were being killed than white Americans, this problem would be significantly worse, considering only 12 percent of Americans are black.

If I had to draw a conclusion on why BLM is so controversial today, I would assume it is due to the way the group gets media coverage. The only time you really hear about BLM on the news is when they try to take a mic at an event or host a protest. Personally, I see nothing wrong here. Just Americans voicing injustice. But when the media portrays a group as a bunch of people who just crash events, then it is very hard to seem like a legitimate organization.

In Dallas, Black Lives Matter hosted a protest based around current police brutality. Police reported the protestors being extremely peaceful, and pictures were even taken with officers and protestors. But after an angry protestor decided that he must take action, five officers were killed. This was tragic, and even Black Lives Matter offered their condolences. The media still will only associate BLM and this event with the killing of police. They will very briefly (if at all) mention how well the protest originally was.

The media is not helping racial tensions in the United States. If we really are going to stop racial tensions, I think it is time we stop spitting statistics and start building bridges between communities.