The movement BLM spawned not just from police brutality, but the systematic prejudice against black and brown people leading to our deaths. BLM started under President Obama because Trayvon Martin was murdered by whatshisface and then he was declared not guilty despite all the evidence stating otherwise. Trayvon had no weapons, he had skittles and AriZona Tea. One of Trayvon's parents lived in that neighborhood, he was minding his business walking home. The 911 Operator TOLD whasthisface, who was not even an official member of the neighborhood watch, to leave Trayvon alone because the police would come instead. Whatshisface didn't listen, confronted an innocent kid, and then shot him as that kid was trying to defend himself.
The message of Black Lives Matter is
Black Lives Matter too. It doesn't just stop at police brutality, it's about ending prejudice. It's about addressing systematic racism that leads to the "black on black" crime conservatives cry about.
Quick tangent, every single race on this earth kills each other more than any other race. Why? Because we live next to each other. Our families are of our race and often so are our friends. We all abuse each other. We all rape each other. It's because of proximity, not because of culture or other bullshit excuses.
Here is the data, please read it:
Don't you think it would be ridiculous of me to say, "When are WHITES going to do something about White on White crime? You're KILLING each other more than anyone else!" It's stupid because no shit, every race kills each other more than anyone else!
Back to the message of BLM, as I mentioned, it extends beyond police brutality. Another part of the movement is addressing homelessness and where city funding is going. Here, let me explain to you why cities like Chicago are struggling with violence and how we can fix it.
My guess is, you'll be against all these policies that BLM supports to help the issue. But hey, let's see if you actually want an honest debate.
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More funding for education. Year after year, the police get tanks and military gear while SCHOOLS get defunded. That's right, schools across the country are slowing being defunded and more money is being pushed into militarization and in some cases, literally being given to the military. Instead of funding the cops to patrol school grounds, use that money to buy new text books and equipment. Give kids more after school activities so that they aren't getting into trouble. Make schools a welcoming place for students so that from the earliest age possible, they put value in education and their communities. This is what "funding education" means. It doesn't just mean pour money into it, it means you need to start from the ground up and change the meaning of education in the community and make it worth while. Make it safe. Make it fun to do, for the most part. Those Nordic countries you mentioned do this way better than the US ever has. It is why many of them even fund at least two years of your college education if not all 4 years.
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More funding for recreational activities. Related to schools, part of the problem with crimes in big cities is less and less money is going into making the communities vibrant, clean, and interesting. When people are bored, what do they do? They get into trouble. Instead of spending so much money on each cop patrolling the area, use that money to invest in libraries, museums, parks, recreational buildings, walking trails, skate parks, arcades, you name it.
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More public transportation. America absolutely sucks with this across the board. Japan has high speed trains and we've got trains that seem like they're from the 1980's. It is harder for poorer communities to find job opportunities when the don't have reliable transportation. Not only would a jobs program to finally bring the US to the modern age by making a nation wide transportation system boost our economy, but it would benefit EVERYONE to have more options for transportation other than owning a car.
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A jobs program. Another part of keeping people off the streets is giving them something to do. Not menial $7.25/hour, something that will give them security. Minimum wage should be tied to inflation to keep up with the times. This will free up the market for more people to get jobs as right now, all those $7.25 workers have two or three jobs just to pay rent and eat, jobs other people could be working. If we look back through US history, the poor and middle class was doing better when people had job security working at their local factory. They had time to be with their families and didn't worry too much about keeping food on the table. We should replicate this 'great' time in US history by investing in new technologies. This is part of what the "Green New Deal" is people keep freaking out about. Car factories and stuff like that are no more because they've outsourced all the jobs. So we need to create a "new" factory/industrial culture here in the US. What's the next big thing for the future? Renewable energy probably. The US should step up and make it happen because we can.
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Proper attention on housing projects. Have you ever heard of Cabrini-Green? It was a housing project developed in a red lined area in Chicago. At first, it was a very vibrant African American majority area with hundreds of families. There was a strong sense of community and it was thriving. But, in case you didn't know, Cabrini-Green turned into a mega shithole, a shithole of legend. Why is that? Is it because black people are problematic? No. It's because the government cut funding to the project and let it fall into disarray. The buildings started crumbling inside and out. Elevators stopped working. Plumbing got backed up. Electricity outages, the worst. The people living there were not allowed to fix these issues themselves. After all, they were only renting there, it was government properly. The city of Chicago let that place fall to ruin and then used it as an example of why "We just can't be helped, they always break their own stuff. See???" (Most of Cabrini-Green has since been torn down, causing a huge issue for Chicago and the rest of Illinois since all those families had to relocate somewhere else, and in some cases, the bad eggs moved on to "greener pastures")
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Ending ALL discrimination, which admittedly is hard and takes many forms. You say everyone is equal under the law, but did you know that only about... 7 states in the United States has a ban on discriminating against people with afro-textured hair? Did you know that a job can fire black people if they wear their hair naturally in an afro, braids, dreads, and other natural hair styles? Schools can suspend little boys and girls for braids or not shaving their hair down to the scalp. How to fix this? Pass the Crown Act in all 50 states. We can't control how our hair grows out of our head. Imagine being required to put chemicals in your hair, damaging it over time, just so your boss and coworkers aren't uncomfortable from seeing a couple of curls.
Did you know that people with non-white sounding names are less likely to be called back for a job interview even though they might have the same if not MORE qualification as someone who does? How to fix this? Withhold names from employers until they've decided they like all your qualifications enough to do an interview. This benefits everyone because I'm sure this happens to white people with strange names too.
End red lining. People pretend it doesn't exist, but it does. You should look it up as it's complicated to explain, but it's a systematic process of keeping minority groups in "red lined" areas, which of course, receive less funding and care from city governments across the US.
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Require all cops to wear body cameras at all times and if they turn it off, all their testimony is immediately called into question. Another solution that benefits everyone. We the citizens are constantly told we shouldn't mind police patrolling our neighborhoods 24/7 if we aren't doing anything wrong. The same should be applied to them. They are citizens just like us and should not be above the law. It is for their benefit and ours that we ALWAYS have a full view of how they apprehend criminals. If they believe what they're doing is just, then they shouldn't mind a body camera recording their actions. In fact, they should be happy to have it, it will prove them right in court.
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End Civil Asset Forfeiture. Civil Asset Forfeiture allows the police to make up any charge they want and seize your property without the court being involved. Even if the court proves you did nothing wrong, they are not always required to give it back.
"Between 2001 and 2014, law enforcement seized cash and goods worth $29 billion through civil forfeiture."
theappeal.org
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Give felons back their right to vote. This one is a touchy subject for some. Even I still debate this one in my head, but I fall more on the side of "If the state is allowed to take away the voting rights of whoever commits a crime, then their objective will be to convict people they don't like of felonies." No one, not even the state, should be allowed to take away your right to vote. Yeah, it sucks that disgusting terrible people would be able to vote in elections, but not every felon is a gross disgusting person. Some were unjustly convicted or are in jail for non-violent crimes. This is an issue that greatly affects everyone, but especially the black and brown community. The people of Florida voted for felons to have the right to vote, but the newly elected governor did everything he could to prevent that from happening. That should tell you everything you need to know. Remember, this is Florida.
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Last but not least, end the drug war. At this point, it is a failed effort. We've been through this rodeo before. If you ban a substance, it doesn't go away. You just give power to terrible people. If we look back in US history during the prohibition of alcohol, who gained power from that? The mob. In Chicago (as you can see, Chicago actually has a history of dealing with violence. And technically way back then, the Mafia (Italians) weren't exactly considered white as ridiculous as that sounds in today's age.)
The way to prevent and protect people from substance abuse is to decriminalize it and focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment. Drug abuse should be handled as a mental and physical health issue, not a crime. Portugal is a great case study on this issue.
In 2001, it became the first country to decriminalize the consumption of all drugs.
time.com
It wasn't until recently that politicians started to see the drug war for what it truly was, a waste of time. It wasn't because someone finally talked sense into them, it's because white communities are becoming plagued with opioid abuse. Non-white communities have faced these kinds of problems for decades, but instead of helping them, we were treated like criminals and locked up for life. Now that the crisis is finally affecting their own families, people are finally coming to their senses. But it's not over yet.
The drug war needs to be officially ended. Cannabis should be legalized and studied for medicinal purposes it clearly has. All other drugs, such as opioids, need to be decriminalized and any funding the police had to crack down on drug offenses should be redirected to medical professionals to answer calls for help on drug abuse. Any money the police has left should be used for tracking down violent gangs and drug/sex traffickers.
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Hm, these are a couple of things. It would be great to see you respond to each bolded point one by one. Again, I'm not really expecting you to but I hope you read and understand. It seems like you've been watching one too many of those certain type of youtubers who never actually discuss what Black Lives Matter is about or what they want. Like, nothing in your post addresses anything BLM stands for. You've been hearing white noise and it's up to you whether to actually hear what BLM is saying.
