Opinion: Why “White Lives Matter” doesn’t really matter

On April 11th 2021, the angry 50 year old white men and women of America, who experience little to no cultural diversity, gathered in the largest town within 100 miles of them to partake in a “White Lives Matter” protest because they haven’t been getting their annual dose of attention and are cranky. Some of these people are seemingly upset because they haven’t been the center of attention of matters that do not apply or affect them. These ignorant and visibly childish adults are feeling slighted because they aren’t being included in the “matter” ideology. During the recent cases of police violence through excessive force, negligence, hastiness, or carelessness, it has become quite apparent that there is a nationwide crisis of police abusing their status as an enforcer of the law.
There are countless cases of police using their status as an excuse to act ruthlessly and lawlessly. In 2020 alone there were 1,021 deaths caused by shootings in situations that could have been solved more carefully. Already in 2021 there have been 213 fatal shootings, 30 of which were black. (www.statista.com) This extreme injustice among Americans is done mostly unto African Americans. They strive for equality, and fairness in situations where African Americans need someone to look to for help. In America, it has become commonplace, almost four deaths a day on average, for police to murder someone unlawfully somewhere in the United States. Most often, these citizens are black and are cooperating with the officers during these encounters. This fact alone is enough to show that black people are treated as a secondary concern, as lesser by the American Law Enforcement system. Black Lives Matter was created to show that Black lives do indeed matter, and since they are just as much human as any other race, they deserve the same decency as everyone else when stopped by police and when talked to by other people. Through genuine fear and turmoil, Black Lives Matter was formed in order to demonstrate that black people are people.
Now… These crybabies see BLM and think “wow I also want attention,” and so they take up arms like the true brave Americans they think that they are and they parade like a crew of idiots down the street, chanting nonsense as if they have been patronized by anyone ever.
During Thanksgiving this year, I had an uncle talk to me while watching football, “You know Joey, I’m sick of all this kneeling, did you know that all lives matter? Not just black ones? God created everyone equal.”
Okay Brad, if god created everyone equally why do African Americans get genuinely scared for their life when they get pulled over, sometimes for just being black? For context, my uncle is a white, 50+ year old, male who lives in rural North Dakota. The closest thing to racial diversity he has ever encountered was eating tacos at Mangos on my mom’s birthday. His scope of the world is narrow, and as far as he is concerned, black people are overreacting and they should just have cooperated with the police, and maybe they wouldn’t have gotten shot. My response to this simplistic and idiotic thinking was to yell at him for twenty minutes about how much of a shallow narcissist he is and that if he had any ounce of compassion for other people he would be able to understand that the world isn’t just what he experiences, it’s far, far, far worse.
For Susan down the street to attend this rally is the same as walking up to the protesters of BLM and telling them that we don’t care about their cause and nothing will change. This invalidation of an entire population’s concerns is just a demonstration of how a majority of white Americans truly feel about the African American population.
Derek Chauvin is a former police officer, one that was recorded using excessive force to subdue the man George Floyd who was thought to be using fake bills. The result was a death that could have been very easily avoided and rage that spread through the entire nation, calling for police reform. Chauvin has been found guilty of manslaughter, second, and third degree murder after a long court case following Floyd’s death. Many people were holding their breaths, shushing rooms, and surrounding computer screens while waiting for the verdict of the Chauvin trial. It was a large call for celebration among Americans, but one thing is for certain, it never should have happened. The case should have been solved sooner, it was murder due to recklessness of human life, this much was obvious and for it to take that long to decide whether murder was murder is rediculous. Not only should the trial have not taken that long, the trial shouldn’t have even happened. The policemen who were at the scene should have been able to take care of the situation without any deaths.
This recklessness of human life absolutely would not have happened had the victim been white, and there would not have been any deaths. This alone is enough cause to take to the streets and protest the mistreatment of an entire race of people throughout the United States. Just after the Chauvin case was concluded, another young girl age 15, Ma’Khia Bryant, was shot when she was seen with a knife outside her home in Columbus, Ohio. This just shows that this is not the end. America needs reform, and these “White Lives Matter” people are not helping to improve the problem.