Black Lives Matter

You say, “Make America great again.” But what you really mean is “Make America white again.” All lives matter, right? Then why is this world so unfair? People are living here in America who have to fear for their lives every day. Why? Because of the color of their skin and their ethnic background. They walk down the street and worry about if what they are wearing will spark some injustice; they see a cop and try to act as normal as they can. They live their days in fear, never knowing when their life may end, while there are many others who don't worry and who live life with no fear of injustice. This isn't right and things need to change. 

I just read the book, "The Hate U Give," by Angie Thomas. This book embodies our reality and how many people have been really struggling. The book is about a black boy getting shot by a white officer, his friend watching. He thought he had a gun. What was it really? A hairbrush. This boy died because he had a hairbrush. He didn't get to grow up and live his life. If he was white, would he have been shot? Probably not. The reality is America cannot be great until all lives are treated equally. ... Just by saying Black Lives Matter doesn't mean you believe it, so act on it. It is a change that needs to happen, Americans need to feel safe in their homes and not worry about getting killed by a racist.

Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks were black activists. Rosa Parks, “the mother of the civil rights movement,” was arrested after she refused to give up her bus seat for a white male, and this launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott by 17,000 black citizens. Rosa Parks was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. award. She made history and is a hero to all people. Martin Luther King changed the world. In his speech, “I Have a Dream," he said, “One hundred years later the Negro are still not free, one hundred years later the life of a Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. ... One hundred years later the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land…” This is just two minutes of his speech. We as Americans need to listen to each word and understand every truth behind it. 

There are so many people who have been killed because they had a different color skin. This year, 2020, has been crazy and will go down in history for more than the virus. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, say their names. Their lives mattered, all the others that have been killed, their lives mattered. There have been too many lives taken from this world, America is not great and will never be great until they feel safe, until we finally realize what America has come to. All lives matter. Don't decide their life by their skin color. Don't let others live their life in fear, knowing anything could go wrong at any time. Change. Realize what has been happening and act on it. Fix this broken society and make everyone feel safe.  

okane

VT

17 years old

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