Dear White People, Here’s What Black Lives Matter Really Means
By: Isaac Breese
Tags: Education Reform, Wealth, Race, BlackLivesMatter, Inequality

Imagine being scared to get in your car and drive because the police might kill you during a routine pull-over.

Imagine that the only place you and your father can spend quality time together is in jail.

Imagine being beat out for a decent job because of the color of your skin and not the quality of your resume.

This is what it feels like to be black in America.

Yet some white people still don’t get it. Some white people still live comfortably in their suburban homes without a care in the world to know or even understand what’s happening to African Americans in the United States.

And so when they see Black Lives Matter all across the country they believe it’s some sort of war on police by angry and crazed black people in the form violent protests.

But Black Lives Matter isn’t a war on police nor is it supposed to be violent protests.

Black Lives Matter is about equality; it’s about being treated the same as whites in this country.

Black Lives Matter is about exposing and addressing the injustice of the justice system, the malnourishment of education, workplace inequality, and wealth disparity against black people.

Unjust Justice System

Over the last couple of weeks the American justice system has shown exactly what they think about black lives — they don’t matter.

Instead of seeing to it that we are lifted up to an equal level as whites, the powers that be have have put their knee on our necks to keep us down.

Instead of helping young black men and women see their dreams come to reality, black lives have been taken in their sleep by reckless cops.

Instead of being served and protected, black America’s interaction with police has been extremely deadly.

It has gotten to the point that we are putting ourselves at risk if we are caught by the police while doing everyday activities.

And unfortunately for us this risk is much higher than it is for any other race.

Blacks are three times more likely to be killed by police than whites and 1.3 times more likely to be unarmed.

Being black in has always been a threat to the boys in blue but not it has reached new heights. More and more we are being gunned down for the color of our skin as if targets were being painted on our backs.

Too many times you hear policemen say that they feared for their life after they shot an African American and in many cases the officer had no reason to fear for his life.

How is it that the color of a person’s skin is threatening to a police officer? How is it that policemen, the one with the gun, faces more danger than an unarmed black citizen?

If I didn’t know any better I’d say this is an excuse to kill us.

After all, in 8 of the 100 largest US cities police killed black men at a higher rate that the national murder rate.

It’s as if the gang in blue are worse than the criminals themselves. It’s as if the cops turned into robbers and are stealing the lives of innocent black men and women.

What happened to serve and protect? What happened to our rights to life and liberty? Are we not granted these rights because of the color of our skin?

It would appear so especially when the culprits of police brutality are getting away with just a slap on the wrist.

“99% of killings by police from 2013–2019 have not resulted officers being charged with a crime”.

In essence if you want to get away with murder, become a cop. There is no accountability for officers. There is no penalty for those who are supposed to uphold the law but instead break it.

For killing African Americans policemen are given immunity instead of a sentence. For killing African Americans policemen are being awarded instead of arrested.

There is no justice for African Americans. There is no equality in the justice system for those who are black and brown.

And until now no one has seemed to notice. Until now white people have been going on with life as usual turning a blind eye to what their black classmate, coworker or friend has been going through since they were born into this country.

Hence, once again it takes a nation-wide protest for us help the rest of the country get the picture.

However, it shouldn’t take a reenactment of a march on Washington for White Americans to see our pain. It shouldn’t take another civil rights movement for White Americans to finally understand the systematic oppression that has targeted blacks.

But it does.

And so we scream Black Lives Matter in the streets because we are fighting for equality. We are fighting to be afforded same opportunities that have privileged whites to start at the middle of the ladder instead of the bottom. Not against the police, not against the government and not against whites — but for equality.

Black Children Are Educationally Malnourished

Photo by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash

The quality of a child’s education should not be determined by the color of their skin.

Yet, for some reason black boys and girls always get the short end of the stick when it comes to their education — namly the quality of teachers.

Non-white students attend schools with a higher concentration of first year teachers than white students.

Almost 7% of black students attend schools where 20% of the teachers do not meet state certifications and license requirements compared to only 1.5% white students.

How does one expect a student to learn from a teacher that doesn’t truly know what they are doing? How are students expected to learn when the teacher knows just as much about the material as the students?

Unfortunately, the problem with teachers doesn’t just stop at their lack of experience it continues on into their lack of confidence in black students.

When students are assigned to teachers of different demographics that teacher is significantly more likely to perceive that student as disruptive, inattentive, and less likely to complete homework versus a teacher of the same demographic.

Thus, nonblack teachers have significantly lower academic expectations for black students than black teachers.

Which begs the questions, why are black students more likely to be taught by another race as opposed to white students?

To put it more bluntly why are schools using a higher percentage of white teachers to teach their black students as opposed to black teachers?

The only conclusion that I could come to in order to answer this perplexing question is systemic racism.

The educational system made for white students which blacks have been thrusted into in order to give off a false sense of equality has disproportionally disadvantaged black students.

Not only do their teachers lack experience but they lack confidence in the students which they aren’t even qualified to teach.

But as I think about it it makes sense. Of course white teachers lack confidence in their black students because they are unqualified to provide an adequate education to students who they can’t relate to.

If you were a scientist and tasked to educate your students on the stock market it would be hard to expect one of them to be the next Warren Buffet.

However race inequality between black and white students doesn’t stop there. It somehow manages to get worse.

Nationwide schools spend $334 more on white students than nonwhite students. The gap widens when comparing schools that are 90% white with schools that are 90% nonwhite ($733 more dollars).

But that’s not all, across all schools an increase of 10% in students of color are associated with a decrease in spending of $75 per student (Unequal).

Essentially the more black and brown students that populate a school the less money is given to that school. If this isn’t the definition of systemic racism I don’t know what is.

Why are black and brown boys and girls given less funding than they white counterparts? Are they not just as deserving of a quality education as whites?

It would appear so however it shouldn’t be the case.

And as a result of this fact Black Lives Matter has moved on from a hashtag to a movement. Black men, women, boys and girls are seen in the streets protesting on behalf of black lives.

Now there is noise being made to defund the police. Now there are serious demands for reparations in the amount of roughly $14 trillion dollars.

Why?

Because of our need for equality.

To some these demands seem irrational and to some these actions seemed uncalled for.

But regardless of what they seem like, they are long overdue.

The US Wealth Disparity Is Black & White

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

Could you imagine making less money than someone else because of the color of your skin? Can you imagine not being able to secure a home loan because you’re darker than most?

Well if you’re white in this country, it’s hard to imagine since you’ve never been a victim of such racist practices. However, if you’re black in this country, you don’t have to imagine it because you go through it every day.

The main thing that continues hold black Americans down is the lack of access to wealth.

The median black wealth in 2016 was less than 10% of whites ($13,460 compared to $142,180), the average black wealth was 11% of whites ($102,477 compared to $935,584), and the percentage of blacks with little to no wealth was more than doubled what it is for whites (25.8% compared to 10.6%).

As a result, blacks are unable to take advantage of certain liberties that our white brothers and sisters are used to having.

The financial privileges awarded to whites are almost like bucket list goals for blacks. Things such as homeownership are milestones for blacks whereas for whites it would simply be another checked box.

Simply getting a mortgage from a bank is like pulling teeth due to systematic housing and mortgage discriminations that plagued blacks for decades making it harder for future generations to own a home.

But how did this all start?

Historically, black families were being redlined which required them to live in poorer areas to get a home loan with interest rates that would give a white person a heart attack (that’s if they could get a loan in the first place).

This then trickles down to only 41% of African American homeowners in 2016 with only a median of $45,000 in home equity versus 71.8% of white homeowners with an whopping median of $92,000 in home equity .

This is staggering considering 69% of blacks’ households wealth comes from how equity as opposed to the 57% of whites.

It’s no wonder why blacks don’t have much access to wealth. How could we when the bulk of it is tied into something that could barely replace a years worth of income for a lower-class family?

Yet with a college degree there is a path to financial freedom….right?

It turns out even a college degree isn’t enough to move the financial needle forward.

“Black with at least a college degree still had about 30 percent less wealth than whites without a college degree — $57,250 compared with $81,650”.

Which means that even when we educate ourselves, even when we aspire to something greater than what our parents could accomplish we still fall behind those whom we had to outwork.

How could it be that we are so called “equal” when whites begin at the middle of the ladder while African Americans start at the bottom?

One might argue “At least y’all have the opportunity to reach the top of the ladder”.

Yet, how much gratification does one get from getting to the top of a ladder that’s significantly shorter than everyone else’s?

For example, only 37.5% of working blacks have either a 401k or an IRA as opposed to almost 70% of working whites. However, when blacks do have retirement savings it only equals about a third of whites ($23,000 compares to $67,000) .

“But aren’t retirement vehicles dependent upon how much an individual puts away? Shouldn’t an individual take responsibility for putting away money for their future?”

Yes, however, it’s hard to put away money you have don’t because of a job that pays you just enough to get by.

Til this day, blacks face discriminatory practices that have kept us out of jobs which would provide us access to decent wages and savings vehicles.

And though it may have been up to our parents to teach us to get a good education, save and invest they never knew how so they couldn’t pass it on.

And thus you have a generation of people who consistently will begin at the bottom of the financial ladder whereas those who are of a lighter hue begin in the middle.

Takeaway

Black Lives Matter is about equality — it’s about being treated the same as whites in this country.

It’s about the boys in blue shooting down the men who are black.

It's about black children who don’t have equal access to education because of the color of their skin.

It’s about black families who can’t have generational wealth because the discriminatory policies and practices that plagued their forefathers are affecting them today.

Black Lives Matter isn’t a war on whites nor is it a war on police. It is simply a movement to reach equality in these divided yet the United States.

And until equality means equal in America and until Black Lives Matter we as black lives will continue the movement so that one day all lives will matter equally.