Why You Should Support Black Lives Matter

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We were discussing his song "Free," which Derek wrote in response to the killing of Alton Sterling by Baton Rouge policemen this past July. He was only one among many celebrities to come out in condemnation of the killing, an incident that sparked a protest in the city as well as many protests across the nation. The aforementioned Deray McKesson flew down to Baton Rouge to attend the protest, and cell phone camera footage showed him being arrested for no reason--he had broken no law. He wasn't even in the road. This was a clear violation of the Constitutional right to freedom of speech and assembly.

But why are these protests even necessary? After all, some non-violent protests do wind up blocking roads--an annoyance at best and a safety hazard at worst. Mayor of Atlanta Kasim Reed even went so far as to say that "Dr. King would never take a freeway," despite King's march from Selma to Montgomery being perhaps the most significant protest in Civil Rights history. The frank truth is that nation-wide change has never been made through silence; it's made by the demand of the people. To change the system, a movement first has to disrupt that system.

However, it's hard to accomplish that change when we can't even agree that change needs to be made in the first place. According to a poll from YouGov, 64% of Americans feel that black-on-black crime is a bigger problem for the African-American community than a flawed criminal justice system. The problem with this line of thinking is that it can be applied to any ethnicity. While we're far from the segregation of a century ago, white people still tend to live with white people, black people still tend to live with black people, and so forth. White-on-white crime is just as much of a problem because they're in the same community; therefore a white thief is more likely to steal from a fellow white person. The same is true for any neighborhood regardless of the race.

The evidence speaks for itself. As long as African-Americans have been in this country, so have they as a whole been oppressed, if not in one form then another. Oppression's grip may have loosened over time, but in America we believe every citizen should be completely free, not in part but in whole. When Martin Luther King emerged as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the 50s and 60s, he was met with the same opposition that Black Lives Matter is continuously met with today. The message of both movements were initially rejected by the people holding that oppressive grip. People blamed King for inciting violence, for "threatening the peace and safety of our nation" as one open letter worded it. In much the same way today, people are demonizing Black Lives Matter, a movement that only has the best interest of America at heart. If we allow the media--and ourselves, if we're honest--to continue down this path, we will never know peace, and we will never truly be the country that we tell ourselves we are.

Dr. King once said "no one is free until we are all free." If we truly want equality, we will stand with our fellow countrymen to declare that black lives matter. If we truly want there to be peace in our midst, we will not tolerate a single policeman abusing his power. And if freedom is something that America truly values, we will ensure the fullness of it for those who do not have it even when it may be unpopular to do so.

Works Cited

Reisman, Sam. "The Blaze‘s Tomi Lahren Sets Twitter On Fire, Blaming BLM For Dallas Police Murders." Mediaite. N.p., 8 July 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

Clarke, David. "Sheriff David Clarke: It's Time to Stand up to Black Lives Matter." Fox News. FOX News Network, 11 July 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

"Christianity & Police Brutality with Derek Minor." Interview. Audio blog post. The Needle, 16 Oct. 2016. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.

Associated Press. "Baton Rouge Council Approves Settlement With Protesters." ABC News. ABC News Network, 22 Nov. 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

Baker, Peter. "Bill Clinton Concedes His Crime Law Jailed Too Many for Too Long - The New York Times." The New York Times. 15 Jul 2015. Web. 26 Nov 2016.

Theoharis, Jeanne. "MLK Would Never Shut Down a Freeway, and 6 Other Myths About the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter." The Root. N.p., 15 July 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

Moore, Peter. "Black Americans Divided on Violence Within Black Community." YouGov. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

Hardison, Erika. "Dr. Martin Luther King's Hate Letters: Apologists Arguments, Racism and Fake "Allies" Haven't Changed." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 Feb. 2016. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.