Stop The Hate
Communities are groups of individuals who share something in common. Although it is an odd way to find and form communities, the internet is full of them. A community that has taken the world by surprise is the #blacklivesmatter movement. People have been angry about it and many people have supported it. Sadly there have been multiple incidents that have caused an uproar towards this movement. Recently the death of George Floyd has caused people to come out and speak up to prevent these violent situations from continuing. Through online communications, this community has gotten together and proven just how powerful online communities can be. Communities have gotten together and shown that they are more powerful than the police officers that have weapons and get violent because they use their voices to make change and stand up for themselves.
The Black Lives Matter movement is a social movement where people protest against police brutality and racial violence towards black people. This movement started in 2013 after a shooting that resulted in the death of Trayvon Martin. It began to grow even more after more deaths began happening, particularly after the death of George Floyd. Communities were getting together and helping these people get the justice they deserved. According to an ADL article it was stated “There is a larger context and history of African American men and boys who were killed at the hands of the police, many of whom, like George Floyd (2020), were unarmed.” This goes to show that innocent people were harmed after being accused for being armed. Communities get affected after these kinds of incidents occur because it makes people afraid and it makes the police feel like they are powerful when really they are only violent. Police officers were putting a bad reputation on themselves because they were making themselves seem as if they were heartless and did not care about anybody else other than themselves. It was obvious that they were only caring about the community they are from and are in while protestors were caring about other communities that are around them. This goes to show just how selfish police officers can be since the only thing that matters to them is themselves. They do not think about the families they are breaking apart and the lives they are ruining.
The instagram page titled “Blacklivesmatter” is a group of 4.5 million members. This community supports what is right, highlights the injustice treatments Africans Americans are experiencing in our everyday lives, honor those who sacrifice their lives, and helped bring a change in history for our African Americans brothers and sisters. Even though we are all the same and bleed the same color of blood there are some white supremists that believe they are superior than others just because of their skin tone. This shows that they are ignorant because race is something that was made up by the whites to justify that they were “better than any other race”. This community is exposing the truth of what is happening in our country, and are working together to come up with solutions to reform this violence and discrimaination that is targeting African Americans for decades. They do this by posting visual evidence like videos and photos so that the members can view and with one another they would interact to express their feelings and what needed to be done in order to prevent this issue from occurring again in the future. Members are always there for eachother and would help each other with anything that would help their case or raise awareness to these issues.
During the Black Lives Matter many members and people from the community have done multiple peaceful protests to bring awareness to the oppression caused by the police. Although the protests were not meant to be violent, they had escalated to that point, so even more police brutality and violence was being projected. In a way this was going against what the protests were supposed to do because they were meant to stop the violence but instead it was still happening. Police officers were using these protests to take advantage of their powers and let people know how violent they can get with them. Instead of protecting people and making them feel safe, police officers were making people feel afraid and unwanted. Protests are meant to spread awareness and not cause harm, however, the way police officers were reacting they were making it seem like the protestors were the bad people. In reality the police were just proving even more to the community how much pain they can cause and how much noise they can make. According to The Washington Post it stated “In fact, the Black Lives Matter uprisings were remarkably nonviolent. When there was violence, very often police or counter protestors were reportedly directing it at the protestors”. This goes to show that the violence that took place during these protests was not the protestors’ faults, it was the police that was causing all this destruction. There were only some police officers that knew what was going on was not right and did not take part in the violence.
Me personally being a part of this community I have seen how angry people have been. These kinds of experiences are traumatizing because it makes people afraid of who they are and afraid to be themselves. It also makes people feel left out in a way because there is no equality and they get treated differently. Protests can be difficult however, it shows just how much the community comes together and fights for what is right. Our community is powerful because it has made history and is still making history. When communities join together to help they do not give up and keep on fighting no matter what happens. Over these past few months, through all of the violence that has taken place, these communities had kept fighting through it all and did not let anything stop them. They did not let the violence get to them and prevent it from having their voices be heard.
In conclusion, communities come together when it is time to do the right thing for our society. Ever since the #blacklivesmatter movement people around the world are continuously on their feet and fighting for what they believe is right along with fighting for the equality everybody deserves. It is upsetting that communities have to come together and fight for all this justice and equality when everybody should be treated the same when it comes to it, but since our society does not provide that, communities will continue to spread the message so that it is not forgotten.
