My thoughts on the Black lives matter protest and movements are very powerful, uplifting, and brave because of the fight against social injustice. I am in full support of the Black Lives Matter movement because of social injustice, that needs change and the killings of unarmed African Americans has to stop, yet it still continues. My experiences with police officers is not the same with African Americans. I think it mainly is because of race and that is the whole issue in the country. Racial injustice has been the main issue with everything between the African American community and the Police. I was watching the “L.A 92” documentary about the Rodney King beating and the riots in Los Angeles on netflix and it is very similar to the situation happening now. After watching the documentary, it is almost watching the same situation and problem but in a different time period. The only difference is that the murder of George Floyd is much bigger and shows how systematic racism is in the United States. Seeing the protests, riots, looting, and the division along with tension between the African American communities and the Police has been going on for years. In this current state of everything going on, it is like 1968 or another modern day Civil Rights Movement 2.0. This is because of the continued racial injustice and killings of African Americans that has continued on. Nothing has changed in our pastime and the justice system continues to ignore these issues.
The lessons we can learn from the 1960’s is calling for congress to act and change the justice system. Although little has changed, every moment counts because of what might happen next. An example of this is the start of desegregation and equal rights because of the protests in the United States. Taking a knee protest is the right because it will hopefully get people’s attention. Taking a knee is not a disrespect act to the military or the flag because they are not doing anything to the flag. I come from a military family that fought alongside African Americans, Whites and other minorities. My great-grandfathers and grandfathers lived in the 1960’s and hoped that his African American friends would be treated equally because of their service. However their friends were not back home, but he supported them and their movement in the Civil Rights, though they did not participate in the marches. From an interactional perspective, it is a great thing because of how other countries are able to recognize social and racial injustice on African Americans better than the United States. They support the black lives matter movement and the country of Iran told the president not to fire into the crowds of his own people. This response from Iran, who has been considered “Axis of Evil” by the United States, only goes to show how we are as a country and the type of leadership we have, which is very poor and extremely disappointing along with being an embearassment. I know for a fact that if both my great-grandfathers and grandfathers were alive they would be very disappointed and say “This is not the country we fought for and this type of leadership from President Trump is far beyond unacceptable and not right”. This is because of the support they gave to his African American friends during the Civil Rights movements in the 1950’s through the 1970’s. They would even support and understand the kneel during the National Anthem because of the police brutality and Racial injustice on African Americans.
