I think that the Black Lives Matter movement was a reasonable response to the events

that spurred it initially, but now has become damaging and detrimental to Americans because it
continues to divide Americans and has distracted people from the real focus. Furthermore, I
believe that Blue Lives Matter laws are essential to protect the law enforcement officers from
extremist Black Lives Matter member attacks.
To begin with, I believe that the Black Lives Matter movement at the very core of its
nature was well-reasoned and good, but lately it has been taken too far. As we have been
learning about the roots of slavery during the 17th century in America, we can see that there has
been clear and unfair treatment of black people throughout American history. In the video
“Slavery and the Making of America”, the narrator describes the punishments slaves would face
if they tried to stick up for themselves and flee. He lists that slaves would face
“whippings…branding ‘R’s’ on their cheeks… severed ears… castration for male slaves”
(Making of America). This kind of treatment towards black people was animalistic and
inhumane. While this unfair treatment was in the context of America during the early 1700’s,
understanding the long history of unfair treatment of black and oppressed people is key to being
sympathetic towards members of the Black Lives Matter movement and the racism they have
had to deal with for decades.
Fortunately, we don’t see this severe mistreatment towards blacks in our society today,
but we do continue to see unfair treatment in other racist forms. The origins of the Black Lives
Matter movement “developed in America in response to the acquittal of the police officer
accused of killing the teenager, Michael Brown” (Discussion Forum 1, Canvas), amongst several
accounts of racist events we see today. If we deny the fact that racism is still an occurring thing,
then we deny reality: there are several people in different communities who do face
discrimination because of their skin color, religion, or who they are as a person. Just one
example is detailed in the article, “Driving While Black”, where Charles Epp and Steven
Maynard-Moody detail the likelihoods of different people being pulled over just because of their
skin color. They pull these statistics from a survey they conducted in Kansas City. They found
that, “in investigatory stops, a black man age twenty-five or younger has a 28 percent chance of
being stopped for an investigatory reason over the course of a year; a similar young white man
has a 12.5 percent chance, and a similar young white woman has only a 7 percent chance”
(Driving While Black 8). And this is where I believe that the Black Lives Matter movement was
initially good; it was a way for black and oppressed people to speak up for themselves and
confront an issue that was troubling their communities and lives. No one deserves to be treated
differently because of the color of their skin, and people have a Constitutional right to speak up
for themselves.
However, regarding the issues with the Black Lives Matter movement, I believe most
people in our contemporary American society are familiar with the history of seeing this unfair
treatment being dealt with in a positive way; and therefore, this Black Lives Matter movement
was extreme. Within the past century, we have had positive movements across the nation: Rosa
Parks standing up for Civil Rights on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, Martin Luther
King Jr. delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington D.C. in 1963, and so on. Our
country has come a long way since the colonial days where slavery was a way of life, and where
segregation was still prominent in an early 1900’s industrialized society. As our American
culture has begun to grow and mature in the 21st century, our laws and culture as a whole have
begun to encourage the inclusion of blacks and oppressed people in society, and encourage
citizens to be tolerant towards everybody. In fact, in the article “Tolerance is more than putting
up with things- it’s a moral virtue” by Rivka T. Witenberg, she defines tolerance as “a positive
approach to examining relationships between groups of people who are different from each
other” (Witenberg 3). With the recent uprisings of injustice that we see exploding on our TV
screens, I do think that the media amps up the intensity on stories to make them more interesting.
While I’m not denying that thousands of people each year are treated unjustly, I do think that
compared with the millions of Americans, a majority of citizens are more tolerant, accepting, and
inclusive of African Americans in everyday life.
Secondly, I believe that the nature of the Black Lives Matter movement has become
harmful to American citizens, and is doing more harm than good. While some members of the
Black Lives Matter movement take professional, sensible, and harmless moves to promote their
cause, many other members sadly take unnecessary, sometimes violent measures to stand up for
what they believe in. For example, earlier in the fall of 2016, we had NFL players who were
kneeling during the National Anthem before football games in protest of unjust killings of
African Americans. In fact, Colin Kaepernick was the leader in this movement who had talked
with United States veteran Nate Boyer. They discussed how Kaepernick could use his national
fame as a platform for him to harmlessly protest police brutality by kneeling. While Kaepernick
had a non-violent and good-hearted intent with this particular issue (although this and other
things he had said were very controversial), this aggravated the nation, caused division amongst
players and fans, and confused the whole of America on what the topic was about: disrespecting
the flag vs. Black Lives Matter protest. While this topic is fascinating and would be intriguing to
delve into deeper, it very sensitive and but a brief example.
A second example of how the Black Lives Matter movement does more harm than good
is the violence that has been brought about by this movement. After doing much research, it is
clear that the Black Lives Matter group itself does not explicitly intend for violent reform. Conor
Friedersdorf, who wrote an article for the Atlantic titled “How to Distinguish Between Antifa,
White Supremacists, and Black Lives Matter”, claims that, “The movement’s end of stopping
unjust police killings is laudable; and its leaders and the vast majority of its members openly
favor nonviolent means” (Friedersdorf 18). However, we have seen in the past year several
examples of violent riots led by Black Lives Matter members: the killing of five Dallas police
officers, officers killed and permanently disabled in Baton Rouge, and many more. I admire the
passion of members of the Black Lives Matter movement, but I think that passion can be used
more constructively. At the moment, we have unfortunately seen this passion influence young
adults such as 29 year-old Gavin Long, who purposefully gets in a shootout with cops, to commit
suicide and believes he’s doing this for a great enough cause (Mettler 4-5).
In reference to the Blue Lives Matter movement, I believe that these laws are necessary
to protect our law enforcement officers, especially with the directed hate from some Black Lives
Matter members specifically targeted towards police officers. We need to remember that
discrimination is not what the United States stands for in its Constitution regarding civil liberties
for all of its citizens. Police officers are aware of this, and they are the ones who are actively
protecting our Constitutional rights. Because of the imperfect nature of our humanity, there will
continue to be people who will discriminate against others, disagree with others, etc. Sadly,
nothing is stopping a police officer from using his personal discrimination during his line of
duty, and that is something that is mostly uncontrollable. But I can tell you from personal
experience, as the son of a law enforcement officer, that the majority of police officers are
“good” officers and do not use their position of authority as an excuse to unjustly abuse another
person. Thus, the outspoken and unjust police officers we see highlighted on television are the
exception, not the rule.
In summation, I believe that the Black Lives Matter movement is decreasing in
effectiveness and increasing in division and violence, and the Blue Lives Matter bills are
necessary to protect our law enforcement officers who in turn protect our civil liberties. This
debate between Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter has legitimate rights to be discussed,
but ultimately I do believe that every single person’s life matters. So I suggest that as American
citizens we look for a way to peacefully resolve this conflict. I believe that our society has gotten
to a point where we believe the only way we can make change is with forcefulness and violence;
this is simply not true. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “Darkness cannot drive out
darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”.
References:
“Slavery and the Making of America Ep 1 Questions Added”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2903&v=LFf1EPaCoiQ
Epp, Charles and Steven Maynard-Moody. “Driving While Black”. Washington Monthly.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/janfeb-2014/driving-while-black/
Witenberg, Rivka T. “Tolerance is more than putting up with things-it’s a moral virtue”. The
Conversation. 16 September, 2014. http://theconversation.com/tolerance-is-more-than-putting-
up-with-things-its-a-moral-virtue-31507
Friedersdorf, Conor. “How to Distinguish Between Antifa, White Supremacists, and Black Lives
Matter”. The Atlantic. 31 August, 2017.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/drawing-distinctions-antifa-the-alt-right-
and-black-lives-matter/538320/
Mettler, Katie. “‘Permanently disabled’ Baton Rouge officer sues Black Lives Matter for 2016
ambush shooting”. 10 July, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-
mix/wp/2017/07/10/permanently-disabled-baton-rouge-officer-sues-black-lives-matter-for-2016-
ambush-shooting/?utm_term=.71ad71d6f33b