All Lives Matter. But Do They Really?

The All Lives Matter vs Black Lives Matter debate is both recent and ongoing.

Especially now, given the circumstances behind Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and so many innocent black men and womens' deaths at the hands of white police officers, this debate will be never ending. But the question is, if ALL LIVES MATTER, why are BLACK LIVES being ended by the people who are supposed to protect us?

Before saying "ALL LIVES MATTER", we need to look inside ourselves, we need to really recognize what we believe in and how it affects whether we support All Lives Matter or Black Lives Matter.

This country that we live in, whether we want to accept the fact or not, has been founded on White Patriarchal Supremacy. If you go back to the times of our Founding Fathers, then recognize that they are not the real Founders of the United States of America.

Long before Europeans set foot on this land, there were already people here living their lives and enjoying it as well. Native Americans. They were the first real people that we should have recognized to have not only discovered America, but made a life here as well. We shouldn't call Christopher Colombus the man who discovered America, because he didn't. In fact, the only reason he was on the boat was because he was trying to find Indian spices from the Indian subcontinent. The only thing Christopher Colombus did was introduce America to the European World, prompting Europeans to make the journey to America.

And even that wouldn't have mattered if Europeans had chosen to share. Once Europeans had colonized this land, it wasn't long after that Native Americans were forced off their lands and into harsh conditions, just so that the immigrants who came from Europe could make themselves comfortable on what should have been considered to be Native American Land.

You know what makes me laugh even more? This country, who has currently been behaving so indifferently towards immigrants who had arrived to create new lives towards themselves, has clearly forgotten that their ancestors are immigrants too. And it's those immigrants that brought African Americans as slaves to the US.

Take a look at the history of African American slavery in the United States and be honest to yourself and to God, can you really deny the fact that African American slaves were treated worse than animals in the US? And why were they treated so unfairly? Because they had more melanin in their bodies than the Caucasian Europeans who arrived and settled on this land. Why were they whipped while strapped to a pole and beaten and raped? Because they were forced to come here to serve white Caucasian families because they had dark skin. Mothers were separated from children, husbands were killed, children were beaten, girls were raped brutally and sexualized. Even more hypocritical and disgusting was the Three-Fifths Compromise, where African Americans are only considered three-fifths of actual human population. Why were African Americans only considered three-fifths of a person instead of a whole person? Why were African Americans forced to give up their families, forced to separate from their siblings, parents, children just to serve Caucasian slave owners and their families? Why were African Americans treated worse than animals in the US? It's because their skin was darker than the white Europeans who forcefully brought them to the United States.

And look at where the US is now. Have things gotten better? Things have certainly changed, but that doesn't mean they are better. True, there are more people who value and appreciate other cultures that have developed in America. However, there are still plenty of bias, racism, and problems that people of color, different religions, or who are just different in general have to face because of the mentality that exists in many Americans.

Even though 2020 has certainly been not the best year (everyone can agree), it can be a year for change. The sparks that have ignited this year have grown into a full grown bonfire and it's time we burn this mentality, this sick, twisted, disgusting mentality that encourages bias against people who choose to be different than the status quo. But if we want to burn it down, we need to ask, others and more importantly ourselves, the big questions, the ones that question whether what we believe in is right or wrong. If we want to pick a side in this debate, first ask which side is right?

Before we say ALL LIVES MATTER, how about we ask whether we think of this subjectively or objectively?

If ALL LIVES MATTER, why does a white person clutch their bag/wallet the moment they step into an elevator with a black person going to the same place as you?

If ALL LIVES MATTER, why is it that a black person who was walking out of a store has a knee pressing against his trachea by a white officer repeatedly saying "I CAN'T BREATHE" and ends up getting killed while if the situation was reversed, and a white Caucasian was killed by a black cop, people would be calling for the cop's head?

If ALL LIVES MATTER, then why is that a white person shoots at people and is ridden off as a mentally ill person, while if a black person or even a person of different religion starts shooting at people, they are ridden off as gangsters, hoodlums, and terrorists? Why do we have two different definitions of hate crimes when we see one person as white and the other a minority.

If ALL LIVES MATTER, then why are black lives subjected to police brutality and die as a result of excessive force by an officer, while white lives, especially those who've endangered lives, those who've caused mass shootings, are passed off as mental illness cases instead of actual hate crimes?

If ALL LIVES MATTER, why are WOMEN, especially WOMEN OF COLOR, are continuously harassed and subjugated to sexualization, while MEN get to live normal lives after harassing a woman whose trying to prove men and women are equal? (I'm not saying men aren't harassed either, but more cases of women being harassed are predominant in our patriarchal society).

If ALL LIVES MATTER, then why do men benefit more out of every aspect of life, especially WHITE MEN?

My final question to anyone who actually bothered to read this: WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO BRING REAL CHANGE IN THIS COUNTRY AND ACTUALLY MAKE IT A PLACE WHERE EVERYONE HAS FREEDOM AND ALL LIVES ARE ACTUALLY EQUAL?

MORE IMPORTANTLY: WHAT DID BREONNA TAYLOR DO TO BE KILLED BY POLICE AND STILL NOT RECEIVE ANY JUSTICE FROM THE US JUDICIAL SYSTEM FOR HER MURDER?

Because whether you choose to believe what the government says, the fact is she was murdered by two cops who raided the wrong house and still did not get charged.

DO ALL LIVES REALLY MATTER IN THIS COUNTRY? IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE THEY DO, THEN RECOGNIZE THE BIAS IN YOU, AND THE BIAS THAT PEOPLE HARBOR AGAINST PEOPLE WHO ARE DIFFERENT.