It’s June 2nd, a week since the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd. His murder at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers has sparked widespread outrage with demonstrations in over 140 US cities and over a dozen other countries around the world. Along with public demonstrations in a time of COVID-19, support for Black Lives Matter has engulfed social media. Instagram stories meticulously exposing the corruption of the criminal justice system, incompetence on part of the government, and standing ignorance of white and NBPOC.
While the movement is gaining traction, especially among members of Generation-Z, it’s become abundantly apparent how disconnected the majority of Americans are from the struggles that Black people have faced throughout history. With media networks such as Fox News framing Black Lives Matter along party lines, it’s easy to assume from a non-invested onlooker’s glance that the movement is purely political. That could not be farther from the truth.
The struggle for Black equity is over 400 years old, dating back to 1619 when the first British settlers reached Virginia and brought slaves – Africans who were kidnapped from their homes and stripped of their culture. From here, a slave society was built. For over 200 years, slavery was cemented as a core tenant of the American lifestyle. The issue of abolition was ignored during the Constitutional Conventions, prior to the establishment of a free union, since slavery was so critical to the South’s economy that an abolishing it would in turn destroy the newly established American economy. Even despite incorporating a Bill of Rights to outline “Americans’ rights in relation to their government”, the 3/5 Compromise awarded slaves identity while concurrently stripping them of their humanity. Furthermore, Fugitive Slave Acts required officials to return slaves to their owners in the case of an attempted escape – an early law that built the foundation for rights of personal property and consequently, modern policing.
President Lincoln’s illustrious Gettysburg Address marked the end of end of slavery in the United States – but only in name. The 13th Amendment, while it made waves in its time period, was riddled with easily sidestepped loopholes. In an attempt to codify African-Americans as close to property as possible, many southern states implemented racist and dehumanizing statutes such as sharecropping – a modern form a slavery that trapped African Americans in a cycle of compounding debt to their white male landowners, Black Codes, and Jim Crow laws. The Black Codes exploited a 13th Amendment loophole that confined Black people to farming or servitude positions with the threat of reinstating slavery. These policies both created and cemented primarily Black communities.
Over the years since, then through the 19th and 20th centuries, policy upon policy of redlining, redistricting, gentrification, segregation, gerrymandering, and voter suppression have been actively implemented to legalize the silencing of Black voices in government. Courts are stacked bottom up against people of color thereby increasing the rates of conviction for alleged crimes all the way down to the local level. With each election cycle, Black voices are outnumbered by their White counterparts strategically to diminish the voice of the minority. Black neighborhoods are marked by superficial ratings that drastically affect the amount of housing, education, and development funds are allocated to them by all tiers of government. Racial profiling is normalized throughout police departments all throughout the nation which disproportionately targets Black and Hispanic people.
Black Lives Matter isn’t a political issue. It’s a revolution against an undeniably unfair system. Systematic oppression discriminates on the basis of RACE, not political affiliation. It directly contradicts the very values that the government touts the pride of the United States – universal inclusivity and access to the American Dream.
By painting systemic racism as a political issue, you admit the fragility of your privilege. This movement is about equality – to treat Black and White Americans the same on all levels. It is committed to finally establish “a fair trial” through criminal justice reform, and “access to the American Dream” through education reform. It pledges to promote a truly democratic system and to not prioritize on American’s voice above another’s.
To help the cause, consider donating to National Community Bail Funds to protect those engaging in peaceful protest.
#blacklivesmatter
Image from: https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/black-lives-matter-protest-planned-18355803