Have you ever heard of Trayvon Martin, Walter Wallace, or Rayshard Brooks? How about names like Nantambu Veney? Jazmine Barnes? Azayla Anderson?
The first three names were probably burned into your brain. After all, every media outlet and orifice recorded the endless rhetoric of Mainstream Media pundits along with Black Hollywood elites and activists screaming their “oppressed” disgust with a ‘racist America,’ from their ivory towers.
Night after night there were riots, marches and of course, mass looting and many, many fires. #Blacklivesmatter was there as scheduled, and an A-list Black celebrity delivered a fiery message during some award show acceptance speech to rally the ‘#Woke troops.
However, the next three names, I doubt you have ever heard of.
The similarities? All six were Black; all killed by gunfire. The difference? Only the first three perpetrators were White and police officers. In fact, that is the only reason you do not know the names of the latter three.
Seven-year-old Jazmine Barnes was just spending time with her family outside a Houston area Walmart, when the car she was sitting in was hit by random gunfire; she died at the scene. Nantambu Veney, whose daughter was less than a year old, was just 24 when he was chased down by two gunmen and murdered. And then there was 3-year-old Azayla Anderson; she was innocently murdered by three men in a drive-by shooting. All the perpetrators in those murders were, “People of Color.”
So, what happened to the rioters? The marchers? Where was Black Lives Matter? These valid questions all receive the same answer- those Black lives apparently did not matter.
However, an important question on the minds of many arises with all this Black-on-Black crime.
What exactly is the point of #Blacklivesmatter?
First, it began after George Zimmerman’s acquittal for the shooting death of an unarmed Black youth named Trayvon Martin in 2013. One of the earliest responses to the verdict was the trending hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. This was followed shortly thereafter by a group of the same name. It was co-founded by three Black community organizers: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, initially to bring awareness to unarmed Black people being shot and killed by White police officers. This was before they started stealing money and buying luxury homes.
Within months, the hashtag #Blacklivesmatter was a household word. You could not go anywhere without seeing it on T-shirts, hats, posters talk shows, and of course, marches. Over the next several years however, they seemed to disappear, appearing only in isolated incidents, and only when a Black person (unarmed or not) was killed or injured by a White person or policeman, which was their initial point and purpose.
Although those pushing the narrative call police involved shootings an “epidemic,” nothing could be further from the truth. Yet for those that prefer fiction over facts, “truth” is a negligible concept. English poet John Heywood possibly said it best: “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
So, do black lives matter? More so, what’s the solution?
Despite what we often see and hear on our news reports and devices, America is being played. There are those on the Left that have long since discovered the truth of the adage, “united we stand, divided we fall.” At Seeking Educational Excellence, we see the value not just in education- but unification.
By putting our minds together, much more can be gained by thinking and working collectively. By not allowing the ‘sleight of hand’ by those seeking to manipulate, confuse and mislead us- there is nothing we can’t accomplish.
I imagine that Jazmine Barnes’ mother would have appreciated a march; something that said her community cared more than just mere words. Azayla Anderson’s family most certainly would have been thankful for Black Lives Matter to speak on her behalf.
Nantambu Veney’s month’s old daughter, who will never know her father, would absolutely find solace in knowing that the neighborhood NAACP did everything to find justice for her daddy.
After all, if Black Lives Matter, don’t their lives matter, too?
Don’t all lives matter?
These are all good questions. Only you have the answers.
