My Experience with Racism

So, the world has pretty much gone to the dogs since January 2020 and the most recent controversy or main topic is racism and "Black Lives Matter".

Now as a black person, I should (supposedly) be meeting certain criteria. I'm supposed to talk a certain way, act a certain way, and dress a certain way. I'm supposed to be supporting Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton and be totally on board with people defacing national monuments, wrecking private businesses, and murdering innocent people... because one person died. And that's the stereotype the media has set for people of my gender and skin color.

But, I actually haven't had a need to be upset about any of the things the black community and the media are getting so upset about. And the reason is, is because most of what they're saying is a "major issue" doesn't exist.

Police racism? I'm sure some officers are racist, but I haven't met a single one who had discriminated against me or my family for anything. A couple of days ago, my friend and I were trying to find the owner of and return an embroidered handkerchief we'd found in a ditch. While doing this, we ended up at some houses that we thought were empty. Well, one person thought we did a ding-dong ditch and a cop showed up. And guess what?

We were polite. We were respectful. We answered his questions. We didn't talk back or try to run. And he told us that it was fine and to have a good evening and went on his way. Not a single racist comment or question.

My dad has actually been in situations where he was discriminated against because he was black. An officer pulled him over for no reason, other than the fact that he didn't believe the car my dad was driving was his. But instead of getting upset and talking back, he answered all the officer's questions, showed proof that he owned the car and then, because the officer didn't have any reason to write him up, he left.

And that's the thing. A lot of the people getting shot or injured are people who didn't comply. We have to remember that police officers are going out every single day, not knowing the kind of people they might encounter. Every car they pull over could have a person out to shoot them. So making moves like I don't know, stealing an officer's taser or trying to run away, immediately puts these guys on guard and they react like any of us probably would in that situation.

Another thing to address would be the supposed racism in believing that the black-to-white crime ratio is seriously unbalanced. But when you take a look at which cities have a larger black population, then yes, the ratio os going to be seriously tipped. But when you look at cities where the white population is more prevalent, the number begins to tip the other way. (Also maybe if people in general just stopped committing crimes, this wouldn't be an issue to begin with.)

The last thing I want to talk about today is the violence and Black Lives Matter. I live in Atlanta where a black eight-year-old girl was fatally shot during a Black Lives Matter protest. When did fighting for racism include murdering innocent people? Destroying family business and private property? Stealing and vandalizing your own community? This type of behavior doesn't help anyone, and all it does is prove to the rest of the world that their stereotypes of the black community are true. That all we do is commit crimes and destroy things, and I believe we can be so much better than that.

Black Lives Matter is an organization that thrives on violence and chaos. They're about trying to dismantle what this beautiful country is. And for them, the only lives that matter are black, and I'm not even sure about that anymore. Do no other lives have meaning for you?

I'll say this now, and I'll say it again, racism is not as prominent as BLM and the news would want you to believe. You can do anything in this country as long as you really try. And if you have to try harder because of your skin color, then I applaud you because you have just broken through a stereotype and proven that you are more than just your skin color. You didn't play the victim and resort to childish acts of destruction and throwing a city-wide temper tantrum.

That is what every American citizen has the power to be, but that freedom won't last as long as this chaos continues.