Pain. Heartbreak. Sorrow. These are just some of the words, feelings, emotions, that come to my mind and heart at this time. My skin is not black and it does not have to be for me to feel the pain that the black community feels at this time. I am a seventeen year old white girl. I have a black half brother, a black ex-step brother, black nieces, and black little girls that are of no blood relation to me but are my nieces in my heart. I love all of these people endlessly and do not see the color of their skin when it comes to my relation to them and my love for them. Both of my brothers (which is what they are to me, regardless if not technically) get in trouble with the law frequently, but that does not change to me who they are as people. I do not care what they do wrong, at the end of the day they are humans who have so much love for me, their children, their families, etc. Call them criminals, call them ‘the n word’, call them whatever this twisted society loves to label them. But at the end of the day they are my family; they are humans with emotions. What is happening to these black men just like my brothers is absolutely disgusting, and it scares me to death knowing that one day it could be my brother. It breaks my heart every time I open my phone to Twitter and see yet another case of senseless murder. We need to wake up and fix this country because it is getting out of hand. How many more black people need to be slaughtered before we realize something is wrong? You may say, “Social media is in an outrage! We know this is wrong! Everyone wants change!” but that is not correct. Because you know damn well that when the next Kardashian nip slip, the next Taylor Swift romance rumor, the next big thing happens, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile’s names will be forgotten. Just as Michael Brown. Just as Eric Harris. Just as Sandra Bland. Only brought up again as an example when the next black person is shot by a police officer. The cycle needs to end. We must say these names every day, not just when convenient without making any real change. Why is it that when a black man is MURDERED that a past mugshot is plastered everywhere, painting him as a criminal for past mistakes when he was murdered for no justifiable reason, but when a white person COMMITS MURDER, a photograph from their Instagram page is shown - maybe a nice photo from prom, or a selfie of them smiling - painting them in no way as a criminal. Many times when a black man is murdered by police, a past criminal record is brought up and used as a justification. Their record means nothing, and it is completely unrelated to the events that took place at the time of their murder. How is this okay? Recently a photograph has been circling of a crocodile on the ground with his arms and legs bound together, with the caption “Police know how to detain crocodiles but not black men.” Whether tweeted to be funny or not, that really did not sit well with me, especially after seeing the videos of Alton’s and Philando’s murders. Crocodiles are deadly creatures, with sharp teeth and the ability to kill you in seconds, yet it is laid detained on the ground while Alton and Philando are murdered. Alton was laying on the ground controlled with police on top of him, in a vulnerable position, and in my opinion secure and no longer - if ever - a threat. While on top of him, this policeman pulls out his gun and points it dead at his head and shoots, firing way more bullets than necessary to kill. He was just trying to sell CD’s, yet instead was murdered. Philando told the policeman that he was licensed to carry and was carrying a firearm, the policeman told him to get out his ID, and when he reached for it like the officer instructed, he was murdered in front of his girlfriend and his four year old daughter. The policeman was hysterical after shooting Philando, and sounded like someone who should have never been handed a gun. Then, he goes on to treat his girlfriend like a criminal, telling her to keep her hands where they are, when in reality the only criminal is himself. He was pulled over for having a tail light out, yet instead was murdered. When will this stop? These police officers signed up for this duty. Every time they put that uniform on, they know they are risking their lives and safety. I do not know much about the training they go through to become officers, but I surely hope that they are trained to deescalate situations and take down a weapon without the use of lethal force. If they are not taught this, then training needs to be implemented IMMEDIATELY to teach it so that these police officers do not feel so threatened to the point of committing murder when a gun is present. Yet the threat seems to only be felt when it is a black man holding the gun. We need change. Dylann Roof murdered nine people, and because his arrest was calm and peaceful, the cops took him to Burger King afterwards. I wish I was making this up. He was not killed; he was detained and treated to a nice meal. And in no means am I implying that all white people, all cops, are bad. This is also not true at all. I have known many police officers in my lifetime that are amazing people and have no prejudice whatsoever, but that does not erase what these racist police officers do. There is no way to tell if a police officer is going to shoot a black person or not, and that is a very scary thing. As black people are often grouped by many as “thugs” and “criminals”, now police are being grouped as “pigs” and “racist”, and they do not like that very much. I do not agree with either of these labels, because in both cases that is not the majority, but black people must walk with that very wrong label every day. Black lives matter. So do police lives. One does not cancel out the other. No police officers should be murdered for the actions of a few, just as these police should not be murdering innocent black people because of the incorrect labels. No murder is justifiable. No murder is sensible. I have been left so upset about this for the past couple of days, not knowing what to do because I am so young and can make little to no impact. So I have decided to write. I know it’s not a lot, but it’s something, and hopefully someone can take something away from this. This is wrong, it is disgusting. We can not go on like this. This must stop. BLACK LIVES MATTER.
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