The Obvious Solutions if Black Lives Truly Matter

I personally was offended by the Black Lives Matter Movement when I first heard of it. I thought the audacity. And why on Earth would they call it that when black on black and gang related crime is rampant, and in some respects or regions outnumbers statistically the rates at which the police kill us. Our lives have to matter to us first, and that’s not just along the lines of murder and gang violence in our community, but all things equally –from our rationale, to our lacking familial structure and so on. I can criticize us because I love us, and we should be our own worst critic.

Sure enough, when you look at the nations’ overall response to this movement –it’s mostly unsupported, with rants of it’s un-American or anti-American, or what about our lives, don’t our lives matter too? If anything, it should have been called what it is, if you want Racial Profiling and Police Brutality to end, why not call it something along the lines of the real issues?

The whole ideology of “Black Lives Matter” is a joke to me. Black lives don’t matter, and never have, when have they ever regarded us as human, of having any value or significance whatsoever? And I use “they” ambiguously, relevant to those who disregard our race and harbor hatred for us, and act on it, -racists, bigots, any institution or entity that degrades and ostracizes us, and takes action against us to demean us, discriminate against us and so forth. So to say “Black Lives Matter” as if to try to convince a nation that perpetually and historically: enslaved you, lynched you, burned you, raped you, castrated you, divided you from your family, took away your children, branded you and sold you like cattle…to suggest “Black Lives Matter” to a nation that discriminates against you within the workplace, schools, the legal system, and so many other institutions across so many different industries, is like trying to scream, though you are deaf and mute… meaning you have no voice and no one wants or cares to listen, least of all you, because if you did, you would have adopted and applied the “Black Lives Matter” idea long ago, -personally, to your life.

What that means, is up to your interpretation. How would you make your life matter to a nation that undermines you? I get that the phrase was possibly misconstrued, which means it must not have been well thought out. Maybe it was just ill-used propaganda, but that logo isn’t selling whatever product you’re trying to pitch. Can you even answer the question as to why “Black Lives Matter”? I don’t want to get into our contributions to America, I ask that question figuratively and rhetorically, to put you in a different state of mind, a not so “me-centric” state of mind, because we all have issues we are dealing with culturally, from immigration to terrorism to the fear of extinction, just to name a few.

When you look at the idea of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, honestly, and outside of yourself, can you genuinely say that you wouldn’t feel excluded, especially if you have been at the brunt of racial profiling or police brutality as an Anglo-American victimized by an African-American cop? If a black cop has a beat in the hood and sees some white college kids strolling through, whether they just made a wrong turn or got lost, I guarantee the black cop is pulling over the white boys on suspicions of trying to cop drugs in the hood. That’s not to say that police brutality and racial profiling isn’t endemic in the black community, I can give countless personal testimonies on my experience with that, and for those who know me I am an upstanding, college educated, working citizen with no criminal record. My point is, the whole theme is exclusive, and I wonder if it brings back the theme of “Black Power.”

I titled this blog or article “The Obvious Solutions” because if this movement is just about talking about the issues, marching and raising awareness about the issues, what is the point…? We all know police brutality goes on… Malcolm X once said: “Today they have taken off the white sheet and put on police uniforms and traded in the bloodhounds for police dogs, and they’re still doing the same thing,” which echoes, maybe defiantly, relevance today. The obvious solution is action. Action does NOT imply taking up arms of course or fusing a race war.

When you look at America as what it is, based on how it’s run, based on what makes this clock tick, we’re a capitalistic society. If we were to run America like a business, the best business solution when it comes to Police Brutality & Racial Profiling is to address it, reform it, -end it. To me, this would mean creating laws against it, making racial profiling and police brutality illegal. As much time as they impose for prison sentences for acts of violence against cops, even the death penalty, why not subject a Pig to the same for abusing his power via racial profiling and abuse of the people they are supposed to serve and to protect (not just black people, all people who have suffered from this offense)? To me this would mean creating a training program and implementing policies to the likes of Sexual Harassment policies and training programs at work, in every police department across this nation. A zero tolerance law for racial profiling and police brutality, to include unnecessary and excessive force should be implemented under Civil Rights Laws and enforced by the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) at every police department in the nation as well. Every time a person is pulled over or approached they should be told what violation or offense they have been accused of committing which should be verified, opposed to being heavily questioned or accused of a violation they are innocent of. Cross Cultural Training Programs should be implemented. Emotional Intelligence Testing and Training should be conducted as well, as well as an Effective Communication Course. I’m sure we can come up with more solutions, which should be obvious regarding this movement. Anything else, besides coming up with solutions to change the state of things, and possibly the movement itself, would be a waste of time.

Introspective Articles to Check Out If You Are Still Puzzled:

Horowitz, Juliana Menasce. Pew Research Center. (2016). How Americans view the Black Lives Matter movement. Retrieved July 27, 2016 from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/08/how-americans-view-the-black-lives-matter-movement/

“Young black men were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by police officers in 2015, according to the findings of a Guardian study that recorded a final tally of 1,134 deaths at the hands of law enforcement officers this year.

Despite making up only 2% of the total US population, African American males between the ages of 15 and 34 comprised more than 15% of all deaths logged this year by an ongoing investigation into the use of deadly force by police. Their rate of police-involved deaths was five times higher than for white men of the same age.

Paired with official government mortality data, this new finding indicates that about one in every 65 deaths of a young African American man in the US is a killing by police.

Overall in 2015, black people were killed at twice the rate of white, Hispanic and native Americans. About 25% of the African Americans killed were unarmed, compared with 17% of white people. This disparity has narrowed since the database was first published on 1 June, at which point black people killed were found to be twice as likely to not have a weapon.”

The Guardian. (2016). Young black men killed by US police at highest rate in year of 1,134 deaths. Retrieved July 27, 2016 from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/31/the-counted-police-killings-2015-young-black-men

“How many gang related deaths occur each year?

On average, 2,000 gang related homicides take place each year based on data collected between 2007-2012, according to the National Youth Gang Center. Comparatively, there are around 15,500 murders in the U.S. each year.”

Reference. (2016). How many gang related deaths occur each year? Retrieved July 27, 2016 from https://www.reference.com/government-politics/many-gang-related-deaths-occur-year-81d438d69ed97cc6

“30 Americans are killed per day on average, of which 50% are black males, even though they only make up 6% of the population. The Trace, Source: CDC via Pro Publica.

Chicago Police take illegal guns off the street every 74 minutes. Chicago Police Department confiscated 6,521 illegal guns in 2015, which is equal to 1 gun every 90 minutes.

Little Rock, Arkansas took 118 guns off the street in November of 2015.

Maryland Police estimate they seized nearly 3,500 illegal guns in the last 12 months.

In the cities known to have the largest gang populations such as Los Angeles and Chicago, gang murders account for around half of all homicides each year.”

The Trace. (2016). 15 Statistics that Tell the Story of Gun Violence This Year. Retrieved July 27, 2016 from https://www.thetrace.org/2015/12/gun-violence-stats-2015/

Check Out Opposing Arguments:

Bandler, Aaron. The Daily Wire. (2016). 5 Statistics You Need to Know About Cops Killing Blacks. Retrieved July 27, 2016 from http://www.dailywire.com/news/7264/5-statistics-you-need-know-about-cops-killing-aaron-bandler

Hudson, Jerome. Breitbart. (2016). 5 Devastating Facts About Black on Black Crime. Retrieved July 27, 2016 from http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/28/5-devastating-facts-black-black-crime/