Why the “Black Lives Matter” Movement should be Abolished!
Our society needs to evolve into one that benefits ALL people regardless of their skin color. Yet, so far, the only evolution that has taken place is to increase the intensity of the clandestine nature of racism. We went from full-on slavery, to the 3/5 compromise, to Jim Crow laws, to Affirmative Action legislation, and now, we have the Black Lives Matter movement. Our society is evolving; it is just not quickly enough! Minorities, specifically black people, are targeted with lethal force by police officers at a rate of 250% more than white criminals (How Many…).
Now, the most common rejoinder from opponents to the movement when they hear the phrase “Black Lives Matter” at a protest is the paraphrased replica slogan “All Lives Matter.” Here is the problem with this: it completely sidesteps what the original quote is saying. Opponents will ask “Why are you targeting only black people with your sentiment that ‘lives matter?’” But, this is an asinine question without a true understanding of the nature of the problem. What is more, BLM activists have not targeted black people; racist police officers have targeted black people (Codeswitch/NPR)!
In the six years since Eric Garner’s death at the hands of the police in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, we have had the time as a nation of supposedly enlightened people to learn from the mistakes of this travesty and ensure its future prevention. But, this year, 2020, George Floyd said the same thing as the same atrocity happened by the same set of people whose credo is to “Serve and Protect.” In six years’ time, we have not evolved! Both deaths, as well as all of the intervening ones of the same nature, are inexcusable for any culture, and I use the term ironically, that likes to tout its own enlightened mindset.
If we truly want to fulfill the promises that we have made with our nation’s brand, then we need to change the societal issues that instigated the need for the Black Lives Matter movement in the first place, so we can, as a result, abolish it once and for all. We can do this in the following three ways:
1) De-incentivize the Draconian and biased treatment of black to non-black people in the criminal justice system.
The USA Today cited that “…a sample of 635 defendants arrested in stash-house stings during the past decade, and found 579, or 91%, were minorities” (How Many…). What’s more, the same article goes on to say that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms does not even track the demographics of people they arrest in these operations which prevents them from tracking if there is a bias in the first place! Aside from the clear bias towards this particular segment of the population, the lengths of the sentences are not small; “The stings are engineered to produce prison sentences of a decade or more…” (Heath). Keep in mind, this is not a single police department, even if it were, in a major metropolitan area; this is the federal government! This clearly demonstrates a bias built into the very fabric of our justice system. The only way we can hope to eliminate this issue, built into the very cornerstone of our legal system, is to enact transparent oversight that will neither target minorities and people of color nor will impose harsher sentences on them than on their white counterparts.
2) Amend the police system to punish racism and favor non-lethal force over lethal handguns.
It is sad that gun violence has become so intrinsic in the zeitgeist of our culture that you can turn on the news, almost any day of the week, and see news coverage regarding another incident that happened in some major metropolitan area regarding it. It is even sadder that gun violence affects minorities to a much larger extent. According to an article from “TheConversation.com,” “…CDC data also show(s) that within our nation’s cities, black Americans are, on average, eight times more likely to be killed by firearms than those who are white”(Pahn, et al.). This is compared to a quote from a Washington Post article covering a police shooting of an African-American man, Philando Castile, that is quoted as “…moments after witnessing a Minnesota police officer fire seven shots at Philando Castile, Diamond Reynolds’s 4-year-old daughter begged her mother to stop screaming, in fear that officers would shoot her, too,”(Schmidt). This speaks to the national mindset of the children that police officers are sworn to “Serve and Protect.”
Even though the dash cam footage shows Castile was complying with the officer’s commands (Philando Castile), he was shot seven times (and hit five) with no provocation! Furthermore, the jury from the ensuing criminal trial for the police officer, Jeronimo Yanez, acquitted him on all charges! Moreover, a follow up article from the Star Tribune quotes Emanuel Kapelsoh who is said to be a “a use-of-force expert” called during the trial testified that “He’s justified in [using deadly force], and he’s trained to do so”(Xiong, et al.). Aside from the fact that seven bullets at pointblank range is the very definition of overkill, if Yanez had been equipped with a taser instead, then he could have incapacitated Castile in a non-lethal manner. Moreover, the police force would not have had to payout $3 million to his mother for his untimely death. Looking at it from a purely economic perspective, this would save the government millions of dollars. Looking at it from a humanitarian perspective, his daughter would still have a father today!
3) Educate the ignorant mindset of the general populace so that they can identify the problem of bias toward black people as a problem in the first place.
A recent CBS news article quoted Donald Trump’s tweets as having said that the mayor of New York city, Bill de Blasio, should not let the phrase “Black Lives Matter” be scrawled across Fifth Avenue right outside of Trump Tower. In his tweet, he said that de Blasio should not “let this symbol of hate be affixed to New York’s greatest street” (CBS News). Let us stop and examine what is being said here: The President of these United States referred to the phrase “Black Lives Matter” as a symbol of hate! Neither do these words refer to any race as inferior to any others, nor do they imply any superiority of race. They are simply saying that “Black Lives” have some importance at all; it is pointing out that they simply “matter.” Given the aforementioned statistics, this is a simple sentiment that we seem to have forgotten as a nation, and these words are only trying to remind us of the fact.
On the other hand, if you would like to see some “symbols of hate,” there was a news article from Hyperallergic.com that covers some actual graffiti that was sprayed upon the walls of an historic African meeting house in Nantucket which read “Nigger Leave”(Uszerowicz). This incident chronicles an instance in which these words do refer to a race (African-Americans) as inferior to others, and it is much more accurate to refer to these words as “hate speech.” The fact that they are in no near proximity to Trump Tower notwithstanding, this should not color our disgust for these hateful words! That word has been steeped in the blood of African-Americans for centuries, and that the very president of this supposedly enlightened nation would compare the phrase “Black Lives Matter” to it in any way, shape, or form makes me both sad and appalled to call myself an American!
In summation, the Black Lives Matter movement should be abolished because we, as a nation, should never have allowed our society to degrade to the point in which it is needed in the first place. We really dropped the ball in employing racial civil servants, racist politicians, and fostering a mindset in which we have forgotten that without the intrinsic threads of African-American influence within the tapestry of this nation it would not exist. And, opponents to the movement will respond with “No, ‘All Lives Matter,’” but this is merely another symptom of the systemic disease of racial bias that floats passed our eyes every day. Let me put it to you this way: if you see a single house on fire within a block of them, would you douse the homes around the enflamed? No. You would point the hose at the flaming residence because that is the place that requires your undivided attention. Let it be for no other reason than because by fixing that problem, then you can protect all the surrounding houses from being destroyed as well.
CBS News. “Trump Tweets That Painting Black Lives Matter on Street Would Be ‘Symbol of Hate.’” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 2 July 2020, www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tweets-that-painting-black-lives-matter-on-street-would-be-symbol-of-hate/.
Heath, Brad. “Investigation: ATF Drug Stings Targeted Minorities.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 24 Apr. 2019, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/20/atf-stash-house-stings-racial-profiling/12800195/.
Pahn , Molly, et al. “Gun Violence in the US Kills More Black People and Urban Dwellers.” The Conversation, 11 Nov. 2019, theconversation.com/gun-violence-in-the-us-kills-more-black-people-and-urban-dwellers-86825.
Schmidt, Samantha. “‘I Don’t Want You to Get Shooted,’ Girl, 4, Begged Mother after Philando Castile Shooting.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 June 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/22/i-dont-want-you-to-get-shooted-girl-4-begged-mother-after-philando-castile-shooting/.
“How Many People Are Killed by Police Each Year in the U.S.?” CBC News, 10 July 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZtK31DIElw.
Codeswitch/NPR. “A Decade Of Watching Black People Die.” KPBS Public Media, KPBS, 5 June 2020, www.kpbs.org/news/2020/jun/05/decade-watching-black-people-die/.
Xiong, Chao, et al. “Yanez Takes Stand: ‘I Thought I Was Going to Die’ during Encounter with Castile.” Star Tribune, Star Tribune, 10 June 2017, www.startribune.com/jeronimo-yanez-takes-the-stand-to-defend-philando-castile-shooting/427452083/.
“Philando Castile Dash Cam Video.” KTVU, 20 June 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfprJGiPViY.
Uszerowicz, Monica. “Racist Graffiti Found on Historic African Meeting House in Nantucket.” Hyperallergic, 13 Mar. 2018, hyperallergic.com/432221/racist-graffiti-found-historic-african-meeting-house-nantucket/.
