The recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade at the hands of police have sparked nationwide protests across the United States as people call out the systemic racism and police brutality in the country. However, people across the globe continue to watch the series of events unravel which has sparked multiple discussions and debates. And while the Black Lives Matter movement is not a new creation, it has become apparent that right now, it’s more important than ever to have open conversations and educate each other.
Here are some of the biggest disagreements people are having about the movement.
Why saying ‘all lives matter’ is problematic.
All lives can't matter until black lives matter. Furthermore its the way certain people behave as if black lives don’t matter. Data documents how black people are arrested more often and punished more harshly than people of other races committing the same crimes. The same colour based patterns show up in multiple other aspects: education, health care, housing, the list goes on. Possibly the most oppressed group of people in human history, when people say ‘all lives matter’, they erase centuries of trauma and discrimination, dismissing their very valid feelings of anger and frustration.
Why people are protesting.
Because they are tired of injustice. In the 400 years since Africans were brought to America as slaves in chains and cages, their treatment has been vile. Even now, statistics of violent injustice towards black people are overwhelming, whether from police brutality, organised hate groups or random acts of cruelty. Also, protests work. They’re the reason women can vote and homosexuals can get married; why slavery was abolished and abortion was legalised; why the Berlin Wall was taken down and why Yanukovych didn’t become the President of Ukraine.
Protestors shouldn’t be rioting.
They’re not - there are two forms of demonstrations taking place. One is the peaceful organising of people seeking justice. The other is anarchists and white supremacists looking to start a race war and disrupt peaceful protests. Unfortunately, peaceful protests aren’t getting as much attention as the disruptors. Once a protest is labelled a riot, it adds a new meaning behind it. Suddenly its the protestors who are the problem- but they’re not. The abusing and killing of Black people is the problem.
Black people commit more crime against white people.
There is higher police presence in black neighbourhoods than white neighbourhoods, and especially with a racist system, black crimes are far more documented than white ones.
More white people are killed by cops than black people.
There are 6 times more white people in America than black people, so yes, by sheer numbers alone, they get killed by police more. But black people are shot by cops at a rate of 4 times higher than white people.
White people have been oppressed too.
Yes, and no one is trying to diminish that. But they have been oppressed by other white people and been pressed for reasons that have nothing to do with their skin colour.
If they just followed the law, they’d be fine.
Even if they did break the law, they didn’t deserve to die for it. Innocent people have been killed simply for ‘suspicious’ behaviour or ‘fitting a description.’
They’re trying to say all cops are bad.
No, they’re saying the system allows all cops to be bad. It protects the bad cops and harms the good ones.
In conclusion: don’t be racist, try to empathise, black lives matter and educate people around you!