Black Lives Matter, And It’s Not An Opinion
At the time that this is being written, there have been 602 reported cases of people murdered by the police in the United States. Of these 602, the race second most affected by these killings are black Americans, at a rate of 3.71 per million. So, does this mean being an African American is relatively safe?
Hell nah. You have to adjust for population. I’ll pull from The Washington Post real quick:
According to the most recent census data, there are nearly 160 million more white people in America than there are black people. White people make up roughly 62 percent of the U.S. population but only about 49 percent of those who are killed by police officers. African Americans, however, account for 24 percent of those fatally shot and killed by the police despite being just 13 percent of the U.S. population. As The Post noted in a new analysis published last week, that means black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers.
If you’re not black, I’ll let you in on some realities of blackness: America is still segregated, just not formally. There are neighborhoods with only white people in them, others with only African Americans in them. If you walk into Panera Bread, you’re probably gonna be surrounded by white people ’cause only they can afford Panera Bread.
This segregation is due to economics mostly, and how resources are given and taken. It’s unspoken, you know? It feels normal, this is all we’ve ever known. But it’s not supposed to be this way. The playing field has never been equal. Racism is very much alive, and I don’t know when it will die.
Nationally speaking, African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population. Black Americans represent 12% of the total population of drug users, but 38% of those are arrested for drug offenses and 59% of those are in state prison for a drug offense. One in three black men can expect to go to prison, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
I literally can’t list the full amount of racial disparity that’s in America because honestly, there’s a whole lot. I’m not even touching on how many LGBTQ+ black Americans die, as I don’t need that in my head right now.
So, do black lives matter? Unequivocally. Absolutely. Globally and internationally. If you don’t think so, go fuck yourself.
Stop treating us like second-class citizens. We are alive. We are angry and loud and hurting and fucking desperate for the justice we’ve never been given. Lincoln didn’t free us and neither did the Civil Rights Act. We are not free. Time and time again, you “free” us and we are still not free.
God, I’m tired. This whole “freedom from centurial oppression” thing is exhausting.
I’ll quote myself, here:
“Blue lives” don’t matter until every citizen, black, brown, latinx, rromani, white, indigenous, Asian, multiracial, is treated fairly and equally. Skin tone is not a crime. Blackness is not a crime. Whiteness is not a Get Out Of Jail Free Card.
Oh, and: fuck the police. Black lives matter.
