“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King, 1963

52 years have passed since the remarkable “I Have a Dream Speech” was given by the infamous civil rights leader Martin Luther King. The Civil Rights movement of the sixties set the precedent that led to the slow integration of Blacks into American society. The race has received several rights, most of which have documented evidence. However, the fight continues to persist, as the right to be treated equally still lingers aloof in the eyes of man. Equality has become a word, not an improvement or a movement, stated in the Constitution. Despite the court cases, the amendments, and the general notion that “racism” is wrong (some may go as far as to say that it is nonexistent), the clock is rewinding back 52 years where African Americans have to continuously fear police brutality and cliché stereotyping. This prevents them from unleashing their true potential.  After all, why bother trying when the rest of the world still perceives you as a nigger or a coon, to be less than human.

The Black Lives Matter Movement has become the latest catchphrase to define a plight that has plagued this country for 400 years. The organization and growing hashtag was fabricated after the malignant murder of Trayvon Martin by the unindicted George Zimmerman in 2012. The movement desires to open the myriad of controversial conversations about continuous racial inequality.  The movement wants the world to recognize that Blacks are not inanimate objects or stereotypes who can be trapped within small boxes, have no intelligence, are thieves, are disgusting, uncouth, an abomination, a threat, inferior. This movement doesn’t just apply to African Americans, but to African immigrants from Cameroon, Nigeria, and beyond, to those who are transgender, gay, or lesbians, to single mothers, criminal record holders, young boys, young girls, and the disabled; they all matter. The objective is to put an end to the endless stereotyping and dehumanization of Blacks as a whole.

Jordan Davis, 17. Renisha McBride, 19. Eric Garner, 43. John Crawford, 22. Michael Brown, 18. Tamir Rice, 12. Only two of the murderers of the African Americans above were found guilty and put behind bars. The other officers were not indicted and allowed to walk. These people, among many others, have been the reason for revolts and protests. Justice is what has not been seen. Slowly, we are becoming re-desensitized to the continuous killings of African Americans by police officers, under the illusion that there is nothing that can be done, that hasn’t been done before. Despite the protests, movements, and actions, racism and police brutality is thriving not dying.

There’s one course of action, however, that Americans have yet to try; respect, the general respect of other races, especially African Americans. The Black Lives Matter Movement goes beyond creating nationalism within back communities, calling solely on African Americans. This movement calls for the inclusion of all races to recognize that black lives matter. There is no price tag which can be placed on the value of human life. So why then, do we, as a nation, continuously rank ourselves as so? No one is the decider of who lives and who shall die, therefore, none of these officers should be refrained from working or “let go”. The chokehold which was performed on Eric Garner was illegal, and the officer still walked away free. The nation needs to wake up from its desensitized slumber. The clock is rewinding back to the sixties. There are bodies piling up. Walter Scott, 50, South Carolina shot and killed by Michael T. Slagger. Freddie Grey, 25, had his spinal cord severed either before or after being placed into custody by six officers in Baltimore, Maryland.   This epidemic deals with all races, not just one, because until we learn to respect one another, from their backgrounds to the melanin of our skin, the problem will continue to thrive and exist, and equality will never be achieved. If all lives matter, then black lives matter.  No one is made more superior to another by color, but by talent.