If it weren't for this movement, these deaths would probably not even make the news.
Now we hear about them, and can see that there is a very real problem, one that has been covered up for years. Without the movement, it would seem that black lives do NOT matter. Everyone remembers the face of little Jon Benet Ramsey, the child beauty contestant, but there have been many little black girls, equally cute, whose murders have gone unsolved, but they do not make the news.
I applaud the young people who are trying to shake up the nation to call attention to the magnitude of this problem, which has obviously been covered up for years. I think they have a right to be angry, because they are also afraid. Imagine going through your young adult life KNOWING that you could be stopped, arrested, and maybe killed, just for driving your car. Not necessarily speeding or running a light, JUST DRIVING. Because you look like someone else, or you looked at a cop funny, or he doesn't like the fact that you have a nice car, or he doesn't think you're in the right neighborhood.
When my husband is out at night, I am afraid for him. Deep in my gut. I wonder if something will happen to him, I wonder if he will get home safely. Or if he will get arrested for nothing. It has happened twice. Can you imagine, lying awake at night, waiting to hear the car pull up in the driveway, rushing down the stairs to kiss your spouse because he got home safe, because you were really worried, and for good reason.
Somehow, I don't think many people here in DU know that fear. Don't know what it's like to live with it. Don't know what it's like to decide that it won't stop you from living your life the way you want to, because you have done nothing wrong.
So yes, I say with pride, I applaud every effort that the Black Lives Matter movement is doing to wake up the nation to a very real problem, i.e. that black men, and to some extent women, fear for their safety at the hands of police.
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