Morality

Like many from my generation, I am a frequent visitor to social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and so on and so forth. Recently, there have been a number of interactions between the police force of American states and the African American communities that have resulted in far less than reasonable ends. Due to these events, social media platforms have turned into a political tramping ground for those who believe they know it all. Twitter, in specific, is what I wanted to write about today.

There are many teenagers, myself included, who read some of the things they see and believe that because its been retweeted so many times or because a celebrity has acknowledged it, it has become valid and true. We are quite obviously, in a word, wrong. Most of us are lucky enough to have parents that taught us from a young age that you “can’t believe everything you read online.” While this is true, and my parents would be the first to admit, social media is becoming a new way for newspapers (i.e. The New York Times, Boston Globe, etc) and similar companies to get their messages out to the younger generations (while also stimulating their presence in the modern world of technology). Yet, still, we cannot simply believe everything that is shared, retweeted, favorited, or passed along.

With all of this being said, please allow me to begin with the real message for this first article — morality is the degree to which something is considered right and good. Needless to say, people don’t always show or possess morals.

When I opened Twitter for the first time this morning, as has become part of my routine, of course the first things I saw were posts about the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the recent shooting on the police force in Dallas, Texas. I wasn’t surprised we were still talking about this and still arguing about someone expressing their opinions, but I do think we can all agree that these senseless shootings and constant investigations are tiring. Right there, I am sure I have irritated at least one person somewhere. You’re thinking “She has no right, she doesn’t know what it is to be oppressed, she has white privilege.” While some, or all, of these things may be true to you, what I would like to say is just as important as those who express their opinions on Twitter everyday, too.

One of the tweets that rolled down my timeline this morning was from the user @LowProCessna. It was a series of four photos from a BLM march in Downtown Greensboro (North Carolina) this morning. I’d like to say that I am not someone who opposes the movement, as it is true that many African Americans have unnecessarily suffered (to say the absolute least) at the hands of white police officers, especially in the most recent years. But the two photos from that series that follow are what prompted me to write this as my first post.

The BLM movement has been a group that makes constant note that they are peaceful group who run a campaign “intended to build connections between Black people and our allies to fight anti-Black racism, to spark dialogue among Black people, and to facilitate the types of connections necessary to encourage social action and engagement.” While I believe this, it is somewhat hard to when signs like these are paraded around in the group’s name.

I am originally from New York — a multicultural, multiracial hub for the United States. It is not often that you hear about these kinds of unnecessary killings or unjustified incarcerations of African Americans happening there. Most commonly, these events occur in southern states (i.e. Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Oklahoma, etc) and midwestern states (i.e. Missouri, Illinois, etc). It is not typical to see these kinds of marches and protests in northern states. But what truly bothered me about these signs were the texts written on them. We can all support police officers AND the Black Lives Matter movement at the same time. In fact, we all should. As a friend recently told me “both sides have reasonable points and both sides can’t do anything about this.” We are preventing progress by choosing sides to this argument as if its the Superbowl. We don’t need to be categorized as anti-police if we are pro-BLM, and we don’t need to be categorized as anti-BLM if we are pro-police. Those thoughts simply stick this nation even further into a whirlpool of civil discomfort and unrest.

All of this being said, I do want to return to the fact that I believe the two signs displayed above at this morning’s protest were wrong. Just as I think the unwarranted killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile (the most recent police victims) were wrong. As was aforementioned, there is no reason to be anti-police if you are pro-BLM. It is nearly impossible to determine how many officers of police stations in the US are racist, but it is unreasonable to believe that they all are. Just as it is unreasonable for officers to assume that African Americans would be more likely to commit a crime than white men.

Regardless, it is utterly insensitive to say that you have no respect for the five fallen officers that were killed in Dallas earlier this week. If there is a desire to make this entire conversation about race, instead of also accounting for the fact that some people simply lack morals, it is important to note that there are plenty of white individuals who act with the BLM movement, who mourn the loss of Sterling and Castile alongside their American brothers and sisters. When the sniper released fire on the Dallas Police Force at the BLM’s peaceful protest on July 7th, the protesters fled the scene, as they should have, and hid behind officers. To turn around and have others in your movement who say that they won’t be upset by the deaths until the police are upset by the African American deaths is simply insensitive. The shooting was the deadliest incident for United States Law Enforcement since the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. There is no reason to taint the reputation of a peaceful movement with your ignorant posters that preach disdain and contempt for those fallen officers. A majority of the US police force respects the oath that they made.

On my honor,
I will never betray my badge,
my integrity, my character, 
or the public trust.
I will always have
the courage to hold myself
and others accountable for our actions.
I will always uphold the constitution
my community and the agency I serve.

It is our job, all of us, as American citizens, to respect the officers that made that vow, that protect us everyday from real and true threats to our physical safety — not mock their deaths and say that they deserve to “feel the pain we feel”.

Generalizations of entire races, genders, communities, religions, cultures, jobs, body types, etc all need to end. That is part of our nation’s real problem. Most everyone preaches equality and peace yet continues to generalize all white people as racist, all Muslims as terrorists, all African Americans as criminals. These stereotypes are only small pieces in a larger issue that is sinking America faster than quicksand ever could.

In summary, this article was not meant to be interpreted as a bashing of the BLM movement, law enforcement officers, the protesters in Greensboro this morning or Dallas a few nights ago — this was meant to express my opinions on the importance of the American people trying to come together for equality for women and men, white or black, young or old; so that generations to come don’t have to fight this hard for their basic human rights, so they don’t have to turn on the news every other day and hear about death, so that they can live and move on and grow old happy and free.

Thanks for taking the time, its appreciated.