Stay Woke | Teen Ink

Stay Woke

December 14, 2015
By Lean_Cuisine SILVER, Wilmington, Delaware
Lean_Cuisine SILVER, Wilmington, Delaware
7 articles 0 photos 0 comments

I'm sorry in advance if this gets offends anybody. These aren't facts but i've either witnessed this or had a personal experience. Please don't take this to heart unless the shoe fits.

 

America is not a safe place. Allow me to reiterate that statement. America is especially not a safe place for minorities or people of color. Recently i have noticed an increase in the amount of deaths of african americans by cops. Don't get me wrong, this has been happening for years. It's only recently became popular due to the exposure of social media. for some odd reason though this doesn’t seem to take precedence though over many news channels daily programs. It's almost as though they are trying to deescalate the situation. Nevertheless I sip my tea.


Throughout sad tragedies such as this a good thing rose out of it. A popular hashtag on twitter has surfaced called #blacklivesmatter and it has raised awareness on the struggles of the african american race. In response to this a counter hashtag has risen called #alllivesmatter. Now you're probably wondering “what's wrong with this ?”. Well i'll tell you. Imagine you're at the dinner table with your family and everyone is served but you. You say “I should also get a plate”. And as a direct response to this your mother corrects you, saying, “Everyone should get a plate”. Now that's nice and all to say but that comment just dismissed yours and did not solve your problem. The issue is that saying “I should also get a plate” had an implied “too” at the end. But your mom's statement treated yours as though you meant “only i should get a plate” which wasn’t what you meant. Your mother's statement “Everyone should get a plate” while true, only ignored your problem and accomplished nothing. This is the situation of the "black lives matter" movement.


With this in mind some white people feel prejudiced and call black people racist for such statements. These thoughts are irrational. Allow me to gift you with the definition of a “racist”. A racist is when a person believes that a particular race is superior to another. Black people can't be racist. Prejudice, yes, but not racist. Racism describes a system of disadvantage based on race. Black people can't be racist since we don't stand to benefit from such a system. Now if a white person says a racist comment it is easily swept under the rug due to good old white privilege.You saying “I have black friends” doesnt dissmiss your inane statement. Simply knowing people of other races doesn't exempt one from potentially racist beliefs and actions. On the other hand i don't think all white people are racist but the latter outweighs the good. If 1000 snakes were coming at me with murderous intent and I knew for a fact that 100 of them were good, should I let all 900 of them come after me and wait till the 100 get together to protect me or should I just close myself off to all of them to be safe? Ill happily choose the last choice thank you.


Overall my point isn't for you to fear other races. It's to make sure you don't keep your eyes closed to what's happening around you and rest with ignorance. I want you to stay woke.



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