“Violence as a way of achieving racial injustice is both impractical and immoral. Violence never brings permanent peace.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke those words decades ago, and although those words were spoken years ago, they still relate to today’s world.
It seems that the world has transformed into this culture of hate and inequality. Violence exists everywhere, slashing at the backs and throats of innocents. There is a world where people are still divided by the color of their skin and that affects how people treat one another. Recently, this strong division is present through African Americans and police officers. On the news, the American people hear of an officer killing an unarmed black man and that has produced raw anger and sadness across the nation. It all started with a young seventeen-year-old teenager named Trayvon Martin who was shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer named George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012. Anger sparked the nation and the American people demanded justice. Through protests, Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder and manslaughter. However, sometime later, he was acquitted for the death of Martin. Outrage continued to spread and the African American people felt that justice was not served for the teenage boy. Thus, the Black Lives Matter movement began. The Black Lives Matter movement is a movement that speaks of the importance of life when it comes to African Americans. Throughout the history of America, African Americans have been deemed as less than human—through slavery, discrimination after slavery, and the Civil Rights Movement—and this movement is about changing that idea and showing people that African Americans’ lives matter just as much as any other individual in the world. The founders of the Black Lives Matter movement are Patrisse Cullors Opal Tometi, and Alicia Garza. Each of them strive for equality and love for African Americans and hope that one day the world will change (Black Lives Matter, 2016). The Black Lives Matter movement is important, because it gives a form of democratic repair for America, and this is what Americans need (Hooker, 2016). However, along with Martin’s death, there have been more African American deaths that have raged the nation and are in demand for justice. The more notable African Americans deaths who have died in the presence of police officers are Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Anton Sterling, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, and Charles Kinsey (Mapping Police Violence, 2016). Each of these deaths have caused the nation to riot and African American people are scared for their lives, because they believe justice and protection will never be served. People which to have justice, with only two percent of the deaths of African Americans by …show more content…
Such programs that produce the idea of equality for African Americans are Congress of Racial Equality, which was created to confront the issues of racism and discrimination in America; National Associations of Blacks in Criminal Justice, which examines and acts upon the needs and concerns of African Americans and other minorities to have equal justice in the United States; the National Black Police Association, which is an organization of African American police officers who dedicate their lives in the premutation of justice and fairness in the law enforcement; and lastly the One Hundred Black Men foundation, which helps improve black housing, education, employment, health services, and the overall quality of life for minorities. There is this strong racial gap in lethal violence between African Americans and whites. This is strongly because of the economic division between whites and blacks. The government needs to explore this and escape this racial inequality (Berthelot, Brown, Burgason, and Thomas, 2015).
Furthermore, as the government supports programs that better the lives of these African Americans and promote change for equality, the government needs to inform the American people of Black Lives Matter. As stated above, the informing can be done through the president, but it can also be done through hiring filmmakers to create videos for the Black Lives Matter movement and have that connect to the people. Through studies, it is showed that the public favor whites over blacks and people must be aware of this bias (Hall, Hall, and Perry, 2016). The government must show the people that this bias means
Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke those words decades ago, and although those words were spoken years ago, they still relate to today’s world.
It seems that the world has transformed into this culture of hate and inequality. Violence exists everywhere, slashing at the backs and throats of innocents. There is a world where people are still divided by the color of their skin and that affects how people treat one another. Recently, this strong division is present through African Americans and police officers. On the news, the American people hear of an officer killing an unarmed black man and that has produced raw anger and sadness across the nation. It all started with a young seventeen-year-old teenager named Trayvon Martin who was shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer named George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012. Anger sparked the nation and the American people demanded justice. Through protests, Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder and manslaughter. However, sometime later, he was acquitted for the death of Martin. Outrage continued to spread and the African American people felt that justice was not served for the teenage boy. Thus, the Black Lives Matter movement began. The Black Lives Matter movement is a movement that speaks of the importance of life when it comes to African Americans. Throughout the history of America, African Americans have been deemed as less than human—through slavery, discrimination after slavery, and the Civil Rights Movement—and this movement is about changing that idea and showing people that African Americans’ lives matter just as much as any other individual in the world. The founders of the Black Lives Matter movement are Patrisse Cullors Opal Tometi, and Alicia Garza. Each of them strive for equality and love for African Americans and hope that one day the world will change (Black Lives Matter, 2016). The Black Lives Matter movement is important, because it gives a form of democratic repair for America, and this is what Americans need (Hooker, 2016). However, along with Martin’s death, there have been more African American deaths that have raged the nation and are in demand for justice. The more notable African Americans deaths who have died in the presence of police officers are Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Anton Sterling, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, and Charles Kinsey (Mapping Police Violence, 2016). Each of these deaths have caused the nation to riot and African American people are scared for their lives, because they believe justice and protection will never be served. People which to have justice, with only two percent of the deaths of African Americans by …show more content…
Such programs that produce the idea of equality for African Americans are Congress of Racial Equality, which was created to confront the issues of racism and discrimination in America; National Associations of Blacks in Criminal Justice, which examines and acts upon the needs and concerns of African Americans and other minorities to have equal justice in the United States; the National Black Police Association, which is an organization of African American police officers who dedicate their lives in the premutation of justice and fairness in the law enforcement; and lastly the One Hundred Black Men foundation, which helps improve black housing, education, employment, health services, and the overall quality of life for minorities. There is this strong racial gap in lethal violence between African Americans and whites. This is strongly because of the economic division between whites and blacks. The government needs to explore this and escape this racial inequality (Berthelot, Brown, Burgason, and Thomas, 2015).
Furthermore, as the government supports programs that better the lives of these African Americans and promote change for equality, the government needs to inform the American people of Black Lives Matter. As stated above, the informing can be done through the president, but it can also be done through hiring filmmakers to create videos for the Black Lives Matter movement and have that connect to the people. Through studies, it is showed that the public favor whites over blacks and people must be aware of this bias (Hall, Hall, and Perry, 2016). The government must show the people that this bias means