Why “Black Lives Matter” and not “All Lives Matter”? All lives can only matter when all people are treated equal.

“Black Lives Matter” is the motto of a new era in America’s ongoing Civil Rights struggle. It is a phrase that is being chanted by thousands of people who are taking part in rallies and marches in towns and cities all across the country because they are fed up with systemic racism and police brutality. But while “Black Lives Matter” maybe categorized as a mere slogan in the media it means more than that to Black people for one major reason; Black Americans recognize that they are being denied access to the “American Dream”.

The American Dream is a slogan which encapsulates the larger and well known “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” slogan of the country’s founders. It means that all Americans have the inalienable right to live free and pursue their dreams whatever they may be. Unfortunately, some people do not feel that those rights should be afforded to everyone in America. First, they tried to classify Black people as not fully human and when that failed, they made sure to limit Black progress socially, economically and psychologically.

Racists are countering the movement by pushing the narrative of “All Lives Matter”. They also say that the Black Lives Matter movement does not make sense because Black people are the #1 killers of each other. Crime, poverty, and self hate are rampant in Black communities and its nobody’s fault but Black people themselves. Other races have come to America and achieved the American Dream so why can’t Black people?

That maybe true but how many other races have suffered two hundred years of brutal slavery in which Black people had their will to be free broken like animals, stripped of their culture, then indoctrinated with white culture? Then after being freed, were made to suffer another one hundred and fifty years of systemic racism, discrimination, and physical brutality? None, so f-off with that!

Black peoples personal problems have nothing to do with their lack of inclusion into the “American Dream”. Comparing the two is like saying Black people don’t deserve anything because they don’t know how to act. Well who made white people the guardians of happiness? Black people earned the right to the American Dream above all others with their Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Black Lives Matter is therefore a declaration by Black people that they deserve to engage in a Pursuit of Happiness without being brutalized by the Police.

A good example of discrepancies in Police brutality is to compare America with a country such as here in Jamaica, which is roughly 90% Black. Police brutality in Jamaica is worse than that of America’s yet we are dealing with Black cops and a Black population. This suggests that police brutality in America has little to do with law enforcement or all races of people in America would suffer the same percentage of police brutality, not just Blacks. Instead, police brutality is the result of systemic racism that corrupts the minds of Police officers, Lawyers, and Judges to engage in denying Black people equal opportunity to pursue their dreams.

Yes, “All Lives Matter” but before you dismiss this uproar as just another episode in the saga of Black dissatisfaction at failing to keep up with the rest of American society, take a deeper look. Black people are waking up and realizing that their fight has always been to try to fit into a system that wasn’t created by them but continues to exploit them to stay prosperous. If white America continues to deny Black Americans unhindered participation into the American Dream, Black people will just keep on trying to tear America down from the inside out.

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