Black Lives Matter too! What is Australia’s stand?

Black Lives Matter movement is introduced to Australia and hopes to spread its message. Dylan Wolfgramm explains why.

Over recent months, Australia has witness the rise and growth of the “Black lives Matter (BLM)” movement. The racial vilification and physical abuse of Indigenous Australians, Australian of immigrant families and refugees have caused members of the BLM community to start and grow the movement in Australia.

Black Lives Matter is a movement which was created in 2012 when a young African-American man in Trayvon Martin was murdered by a State police officer George Zimmerman who was later acquitted of all charges, Trayvon was later placed on trial for his own murder.

The movement has since included the names of more than 136 African-American men and women such as Michael Brown, Alton Sterling, Sandra Bland and Philando Castille who were all shot and killed by police, all were unarmed and had committed no crime.

Australians have adopted the same movement to promote the racial and physical violence against members of the community who are Indigenous, immigrants and refugees in order to spread the word of unity, no racism, physical abuse and deaths of Indigenous Australians within police custody.

What does BLM Australia want to achieve? Many ordinary Australians and members within the community would think that the movement could be “playing victim” or that it’s a group of people who have nothing better to do than complain about how their lives are more important than others and it should take precedence however, that is far from the truth.

It (BLM) strives for a few things, UNITY, amongst all people in Australia despite what a person’s Ethnic background is. No to RACIAL PROFILING, unfortunately black Australians are more likely to be stop and questioned by police officers simply by what one is wearing, how they look, public perception of black Australians and how officers view the individuals. No to RACISM, this has been embedded into Australia’s culture dating back to the origins of this great country and it has been a major talking point every year in society. Former Australian of the year and AFL superstar Adam Goodes was racially vilified and subjected to public discrimination in the form of “booing” during games and scrutiny in the media all because he called out racism during a football game in which he was called a “Monkey” by a 12-year-old girl. Racism forced him to retire and leave the game he loved.

Racism is a topic that most Australians wish to ignore and shy away from, BLM wants to have these discussions to provide clarity and educate the mindsets of all individuals.