By Camille Taylor
Which lives matter most of all to you? If you are a parent or grandparent it could be your children, grandchildren, or spouse. If you are a child, it is likely your parents. For most people it is usually their family and/or the people that are closest to them. There has been a lot of controversy around the Black Lives Matter movement, and here is my understanding of what their goals are.
The movement started shortly after the Trayvon Martin murder in which the 17 year old was shot as he walked back to his father’s home from the store with an iced tea and skittles. He was wearing a hoodie and George Zimmerman, who shot him, didn’t think he looked like he “belonged in that neighborhood.” Zimmerman was acquitted after using Florida’s “stand your ground law.”
Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and PatrisseCullors are three of the founders of the movement who wanted to speak out against what they felt were repeated unjust actions by officers of the state across the country. They wanted to be a voice against not only the shootings, but police officers who were never charged with crimes and those that were acquitted. Repeatedly the victims of these shootings were black, and the police officers were white.
The phrase “black lives matter” is an affirmation and a commitment to the attention and work that needs to be done on behalf of black people who have been profiled and consequently killed due to an initial reaction to their skin color. The leaders of this movement already know that “all lives matter,” but from the beginning they wanted the attention drawn to what has become a disturbing pattern of repeated reports of the over use of force towards black people.
The phrases “Blue lives matter” and “All lives matter” emerged in response to “Black lives matter” as if to say why is the focus only on black lives? The founders of the movement explain that they are giving a call to action for the black liberation movement. They want to end systemic racism across institutions, but particularly in the criminal justice system.
The solution to whose lives matter is not a mystery. A person’s life is precious thing. If everyone respected one another and followed the “Golden Rule” I wouldn’t be writing this forum. However, even deeper than that, until our country acknowledges that we have systemic racism within our institutions, we will not be able to deal with the root of the problem facing our nation.
Camille Taylor, a retired Counselor from Normal Community High School, has been an educator in this community for 34 years. She is active in the community currently serving as a church elder and board member for both the Baby Fold and the YWCA. She has been recognized by the YWCA as a Woman of Distinction for education, a Martin Luther King Jr. award winner for the City of Bloomington, a Distinguished Alumni by the College of Education at Illinois State University, a Human and Civil Rights award winner for the Illinois Education Association, and the H.Councill Trenholm Award recipient from the National Education Association for her work with diversity. She lives in Bloomington with her husband, Arthur, and is a mother and grandmother.
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