To #BlueLivesMatter (on Dallas police shootings)
To #BlueLivesMatter, Please do not tell us to suspend our protest because five cops were killed in the line of duty. #BlackLivesMatter did not kill those officers. We should not have to take time out of our movement for a mourning day. The officers’ deaths should be mourned by those close to them and all thoughts and prayers should go out to them, but the movement and these assassinations are separate issues. Were the killings out of anger and thoughtless revenge committed by a Black man? Yes. Should this incident have occurred? No. Murder is disgusting in all forms that it exists. As we have seen in much of the U.S. history, violence only begets more violence. The shooter is a lone psychotic. His motivation can never be known. Micah is will not see any justice delivered by killing innocent officers. #BlackLivesMatter is entirely against the killing of the innocent.
This being said, when Micah Johnson posted on his Facebook page,“Why do so many Whites (not all) enjoy killing and participating in the death of innocent beings?” CBS news took it upon themselves to denote this as “White hate.” Accompanying this statement was picture of Micah striking the traditional Black power gesture of a raised fist donning a dashiki (seen above). Before I discuss the statement, my dashiki and my Black pride does not equal and never will equal White hate. In fact, Black pride only equals Black pride and nothing else. As Black people, we have been taught to hate our naps and our skin and pray that one day we get to heaven and only then can we practice our love for self. As the actor Jesse Williams expressed in his eloquent BET awards acceptance speech, "the hereafter is a hustle. We want it now." Furthermore, the audacity of CBS, and other news stations have to define my clothing and my pride is reprehensible. By using this picture while attempting to prove Micah's White hate directly associates images of Black pride with White Hate. When White-owned new stations continue to tell us who Black people are and what we do means, it proves that there has been very little progress in White supremacist mindsets prior to 1865. Then, White people defined us as chattel and subhuman. Now that we refuse our subhuman title, we are called “hateful” and “violent” towards White people, even when peacefully lashing out against this system of oppression. Secondly, I take issue with CBS for desperately searching for hate speech where there is not. Micah observed that Black people were killed unlawfully without posing any real threat. We wait for remorse for these killings of unarmed and unthreatening Black men, but instead these members of law enforcement will be defended by White conservatives and backwards so-called liberals. Empathy, a basic human emotion, is nowhere to be seen when people respond to the murders of the innocent by police with counter statements like “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter.” There was no indication of White hate in that particular statement. What Micah did was ask a question that desperately needs answering. If there is no remorse, then there must be some kind of enjoyment that derives from the death of innocent people. Again, though, violence is not the answer to his question and Micah should’ve fought with us until we received our answer or changed this dangerous mindset instead of committing this thoughtless act of violence. Fortunately, our movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, is about a thoughtful upheaval of a longstanding White supremacist system that tramples Blacks before we get the chance to succeed. This system, of course, began with European Colonialism and ends with “Until.” That Until at the end of the time interval should've been changed about 200 years ago. Instead this system has Black people and our allies fighting to make that Until a definitive time. We just really hope that time is now. Black Lives Matter intends to restructure the criminal justice system because we are very blatantly being killed and disenfranchised due to racist tendencies stemming from the dehumanization of the Black body. This structure of oppression found in criminal justice is indistinguishable from the structure in primarily black schools around our country, in the lack of job opportunity in our communities, and in the carelessness or careful destruction of our neighborhoods (heard of a liquor store on every block in Black communities or the CIA’s crack scandal?). Do not tell me that blue lives matter. Blue lives are not being disproportionately killed and harassed by those people who have sworn to protect us. Our movement concerns changing a system, not individuals, because it is a system that has ingrained in its bureaucrats the idea that racial profiling is a viable solution to crime. It's a criminal justice system that uses coded language to vilify and decapitate the entire Black demographic and then parades itself as a representation of United State's ideal of freedom. Black Lives Matter, but this system seems to only bend and bounce right back every time we make a move to try to convince it of this simple fact. All Power to the People, Rufus Scott, 18, #BlackLivesMatter Activist