DOES MY BLACK LIFE MATTER?

I wanted a chance to talk about the BLM protests and movement. I know this is a touchy and sensitive topic for a lot of people. However, I feel like it heavily affected my relationships with a lot of people. 

For those of you who don't have a solid understanding of the BLM protests, I'll sum it up for you. It started when a 46-year-old black man by the name of George Floyd was arrested on May 25th of 2020. He was killed in police custody, his death mainly speculated from Derek Chauvin, a white officer. 

The BLM movement has been around since 2012 following the death of Trayvon Martin. The day following the death of George Floyd, thousands of protesters took to the street to mourn and express their outrage towards Floyd's death. 

The start of the protest was meant to be peaceful but firm, however it quickly transgressed into something more violent and hateful. This came from both sides; the protesters and the law enforcement involved. Protesters across the US began to vandalize and burn businesses. They then proceeded to loot from these small businesses. They blocked freeways and harassed law enforcement. Officers used force to keep control of the demonstrators. Many people were injured as a result of this. For example, a restaurant owner was killed by officers while they were shooting into a crowd of protestors. In Texas, a black protestor was shot in the head by officers.

These protests torn the nation into two; you either were against it or supported it. Now I understand why people might be against it, as so many innocent small businesses were being burned or looted from. So many peoples' hard work and visions were torn away from them within seconds. 

My stance has always been this. While I didn't agree with the vandalizing, or the looting, or how businesses were being burned to the ground, I stood behind the origin of the protests.

Growing up in the town that I did, I knew a lot of people would be against the protests. I respected peoples' opinion on the matter, as we all are entitled to our own opinions. However, something that was important to me was quickly subjected to cruel jokes and heartless posts on Facebook. These posts came from friends and people close to me. 

A lot of my friendships were ruined due to the BLM protests. So many people that would tell me they advocated for black lives, quickly turned. I saw these same people posting about how George Floyd's death wasn't a big deal, and how the BLM movement was dumb. It made me feel weird because I wondered if their comments about his death and black people in general would pertain to me.

I think this situation opened my eyes. I thought about how they would act if something in my town happened like George Floyd's death. Would they care? And what if the positions were switched? If it were the officer who was wrongfully killed by a black man. Then would they care? While everyone is entitled to there own opinion, there's a difference between opinions and ignorance.