The issue of race and equality have become majorly talked about regarding all of the traumatic events that have been in the news the past few years. Every single one of them have provoked an immense amount of emotion across the country. Now more recently, this attention and emotion have been directed towards social media like Facebook, Instagram, and morely so, Twitter. On these sites, people of all races and opinions have been siding one way or the other on hashtags creating more of a spread of emotion. The two most popular are the #BlackLivesMatter and the #AllLivesMatter hashtags that clearly indicate which way a person feels more toward. The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag has derived from the police brutality situations that have been getting more light shone on them especially recently. As a contradiction, a new hashtag became popular, #AllLivesMatter. #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter is people that say #AllLivesMatter feel as if people that say #BlackLivesMatter think black lives are more important than any other race. That’s not the real meaning, #BlackLivesMatter basically means a lot of innocent black people have been killed and mistreated for unnecessary reasons, mainly by the police. There are many stories with police brutality among blacks. One is Sandra Bland. Long story short, she fails to signal, gets arrested, goes to jail, and ends up dead in her cell. Then there is Tamir Rice. Long story short, he was playing with a fake gun, a neighbor thought it was real, she calls the police, and the police pulls up and just shoots him. Next is Trayvon Martin. He walked to the store to get arizona tea and skittles. A man thought he was up to no good as he was walking home. Mainly because he’s black and had on a hood. So he follows him home. Trayvon begins to get scared, starts to run, he gets shot, then dies. Even though, there are some people that use #blacklivesmatter for the wrong reason. Everyone deserves to be treated equally without the color of their skin getting in the way or because of stereotypes.
The hashtag is just meant to get people’s attention so that we can try to end discrimination against African Americans. Some African Americans are mistreated just because of the color of their skin. Someone should not be judged by their skin color. #BlackLivesMatter is needed to spread news about the mistreatment that African Americans go through. African Americans can struggle everyday with stereotypes and have difficulties like getting a job and being accused for getting in trouble. At the least, African Americans can have a hashtag to get word out about how they want equality too. The hashtag is harmless and it is just a way to express how people feel. Yes, this is a very important movement but people have to understand not only black lives matter every life matters no matter what race or nationality. Know there is a difference between caucasian policemen abusing their authority and all caucasians killing black people. So, in other words, police brutality against African Americans is very wrong, but that doesn’t mean that this hashtag needs to be created and a hate for all caucasians. The #AllLivesMatter was criticized for including caucasian people. It was viewed as caucasians putting down the struggle that African Americans endured. All people should matter, and everyone should help empower each other.When it comes to #BlacLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter, the answer seems obvious. Although the #BlackLivesMatter represents more than just the lives of black people, it also represents the struggle that black people go through each day having to deal with race equality and their treatment from other people. But, in this matter, people must realize that not only black people have these struggles each day. Many other races have struggles with racism and prejudice everyday, it is not specific to black lives. What about those with Middle Eastern descent? Everyday they deal with the prejudice that is brought onto them through the stereotype of terrorists. What about those of Asian descent? Do they not also have certain stereotypes against them that makes daily life a little harder? Everybody has problems brought on by other people’s prejudices. In the end, all peoples lives matter, everyone has their struggles, so we need to grow up and understand comparing our struggles is not the point to our movements. Yes, the tag may be a little misleading to some, but a broad mind is needed to completely understand it. People in the black community have felt mistreated and given unequal opportunity in all aspects of the social world. This is a movement to work towards depleting police brutality and the social inequalities that follow the incidents. Yes, all lives DO matter. Not one is worth more or less than the next; people just misinterpret the #BlackLivesMatter a lot more than they need to.
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April 2016
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