Black Lives Matter
Black lives matter - a social movement created through social media several years ago is now proving itself to be more crucial than ever. With the recent cases of unarmed black citizens being brutally murdered at the hands of white police officers, the internet has taken to posting and fighting for justice in the way they see best fit. Choosing to remain silent about movements like these isn’t only an exercise rooted in privilege but it is also inherently violent. The least you reading this could do is share resources and amplify the voices of those who need to be heard.
The privilege of being able to make one post and go on with the rest of your day thinking that a difference has already been made is a naive and selfless way to act. Protest. Donate. Sign the petitions and make all the change you possibly can. We together as a community must invest our time into listening to others and educating ourselves about the reality of the world outside this bubble of privilege. Sharing black screens along and taking them down a day later is not enough, neither is tagging 10 people on your story to post about the movement, we must refrain from turning Black Lives Matter into a trend or a challenge. You cannot ‘nominate’ people to talk about racial injustice, rather than doing the minimum and engaging in performative activism choose to do something that will actually make a change.
An easy way to start is by calling out those who are silent and this could include those who are saying or using the hashtag All Lives Matter instead of “Black Lives Matter”. This new surfacing idea that the best way to respond to a post or statement supporting Black Lives Matter, one should respond with “All Lives Matter”. Well, let me tell you that this is wrong, highly problematic and unnecessary in every way possible. Although saying “All Lives Matter” may seem like it is an all-in-this-together statement, uniting all the races, what it actually does is that it redirects the attention from the Black community, which are the ones currently suffering.
What certain people need to understand is that saying “Black Lives Matter” was never a statement made to disregard anyone else, in no way does this mean that black lives matter more than other lives. This movement was simply created to point out that black people’s lives are relatively undervalued in the US but also around the world - and more likely to raise awareness that the people and those with higher authority and power to make a change need to recognize the inequality and bring an end to it.
Saying “Black Lives Matter” does not in any way mean that they are the only race suffering, but it means that they should be the race that we focus on right now. @blessthemessy on Instagram highlighted this idea in a post underlining “saying all lives matter is a form of gaslighting, it's a way of making black or POC question their reality to keep your ‘power’ or status quo - it’s easier to keep our eyes covered then deal with our own discomfort and guilt.”
The whole point of this article is for me to simply ask you to do your part and put aside your privilege in order to help those who need it more. This movement is not only to seek justice for George Floyd or Breonna Taylor, but it seeks to correct the oppressive and racist system that many countries have been built on. Whether it be police brutality, racism in the medical sector or living quality, all it takes for us to change our system is to speak up and act. You don’t have to be the victim to seek justice. You don’t have to be black to fight for the justice of black people. Silence equals violence, choosing to remain silent is merely the same as siding with the oppressors, people of colour have felt the negative impact governments from all around the world and racial prejudice far too long and it is time it comes to an end.
