This is a piece dedicated to the people who believe that a couple weeks of protests means suddenly everything is fixed. This is a piece dedicated to the folks who are still valuing property and materials over human lives. This is a piece dedicated to the individuals who are too afraid to look in the mirror, face their privilege and become actively engaged in a movement that affects all of us. This is to the people who are still shouting “Blue/All Lives Matter!” Now is your chance to join the collective struggle against a tyrannical president, a corrupt government, a broken justice system and work toward change.

All Lives Matter crowd, let’s dive deeper into the lives that are also being affected:

• The children and families who are still suffering in American concentration camps. “But they came here illegally, that’s different!” But *ALL* lives matter, right? And these lives that consist of literal babies and children along with families who were trying to offer their loved ones a better and safer life are now living in filth, starving, suffering and are being poisoned and abused by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE “lost track” of nearly 1,500 children in 2018. What about those lives?
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (+) lives — Laws are still being made (and passed) that don’t allow gay couples to adopt children in the foster care system. What about the lives of those kids who could have a loving and supportive home, but the law doesn’t allow it because the couple is two men or two women? What about the lives of the couple who want to be parents and help reduce the number of children who are suffering in the foster care system? Additionally, on the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting and during the second week of Pride month this year, Trump announced that medical professionals can now legally discriminate against someone based on their gender identity. This clause obviously affects the transgender community, a community with “disproportionately high rates of illness and death — in part due to widespread reluctance to seek out emergency treatment and even routine checkups over concerns about the quality of care.” On top of that, Black trans women are the most targeted group in the LGBTQ+ community — “In 2019, advocates tracked at least 27 deaths of transgender or gender non-conforming people in the U.S. due to fatal violence, the majority of whom were Black transgender women… 2020 has already seen at least 15 transgender or gender non-conforming people fatally shot or killed by other violent means.” Two Black transgender women, 25-year-old Riah Milton and 27-year-old Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, were killed this month. The report of 37-year-old Selena Reyes-Hernandez’s killing in Chicago says, “A man who fatally shot a transgender woman in Chicago was so enraged over her identity that he returned to the scene and shot her again after she was dead, prosecutors said in court this week.” The trans community also has a very tough time with law enforcement. “More than one-fifth (22%) of transgender people who had interacted with police reported police harassment, and 6% of transgender individuals reported that they experienced bias-motivated assault by officers. Black transgender people reported much higher rates of biased harassment and assault (38% and 15%).” So, All Lives Matter folks, what about them and their lives? What about their right to health care? What about their right to feel safe in their own country? What about their right to human rights? What about their right to life?

If you’re not enraged by these examples, as well as police brutality, systemic racism and the centuries worth of oppression the Black Lives Matter movement is standing up against, then the problem lies with your morals, not with the surrounding circumstances. I recently saw a quote that was along the lines of, “if you have no problem saying ‘Blue Lives Matter’ but have a problem saying ‘Black Lives Matter,’ the issue is with the word ‘Black,’ which exposes the racism behind your intentions.”

Now, to the impatient people who think the Black Lives Matter movement has made their point already and needs to stop:

• Systemic racism is not something that can be fixed overnight, or in a couple of days, or a couple of weeks, or a couple of months or even a couple of years. The civil rights movement happened in the ’60s/’70s… well, it’s 2020 now and we’re still fighting against systemic racism. These movements and organizations have always been around but being in a bubble of white privilege allows people to completely ignore these realities. This uprising is monumental because there’s an abundance of public unity and Black voices need to be heard.
• As white people, we need to help keep the momentum going. Small victories are happening because of these protests but they are nowhere near enough. Here in Iowa, Kim Reynolds signed a law that bans *most* chokeholds, but by reading the amendments of that law, it’s quite clear the new law changes nothing and it was a ploy for Reynolds to get the Black Lives Matter movement off her back.
• Breonna Taylor’s killers still walk free. One of the officers involved in her death has been fired but the two other officers involved are still employed and none of them are facing charges. Taylor was killed on March 13 — it took 98 days to even fire one of the officers involved. The “point” has yet to be made when facing, again, centuries worth of oppression, racism, abuse and exploitation.
• Just because you’re uncomfortable with the damning reality of racism, doesn’t mean protests are going to end. Regarding racism, Jon Stewart said, “You’re tired of hearing about it? Imagine living it.”

Is property worth more than human life? Let’s discuss this:

• This weekend, a planned protest happened in front of a specific Hy-Vee in Des Moines. Aside from heavily donating to racist Republicans, including Trump, this specific Hy-Vee discouraged employees from attending Black Lives Matter protests because it allegedly doesn’t align with their values. This Hy-Vee also had COVID-19 cases that were not reported publicly and threatened employees who wanted to speak out. On top of that, multiple allegations of sexual harassment have been reported at this Hy-Vee, but nothing has been done or even addressed. Though the roads were blocked off for the protest, a truck tried driving into the crowd of people, allegedly yelling racial slurs. It was reported by multiple eyewitnesses who say the cops on duty saw the event transpire and did not pursue the person who attempted vehicular homicide. “The crowd chanted ‘arrest him’ as the man reversed and parked nearby. There were at least two more confrontations between drivers and protesters who sealed parking lot entrances. Des Moines police officers shut themselves inside the store and no customers were allowed to enter.” Angry from the cops doing literally nothing, some protestors decided to vandalize a cop car. Even though the Des Moines Police Department did nothing to ensure the safety of the protestors, people are only focusing on the damaged cop car. This is a story that’s been on repeat: protests usually remain peaceful, even though cops still tear gas them, shoot them with rubber bullets and continuously abuse their power, but the moment it moves toward reciprocated violence, white people can only focus on the damaged property. Not abusive, power-hungry cops, not the killings of innocent Black people, not racism, not the inequity that lies in almost every aspect of life in America, but the precious property! Guess what, folks? That car can be fixed. Buildings and windows can also be fixed. Are we able to take a dead body to an auto shop and get it repaired? No? Then what’s more important? “But my taxes! That repair will come out of my taxes!” Guess what else comes out of your taxes? Paying the salaries of the cops who were on duty and did nothing to protect the people that were exercising their constitutional rights.

Privilege and accountability are hard pills to swallow but it can be easily done. It needs to be done because this is a collective struggle, a collective battle. These are human rights, not a matter of opinion. I’ll end with two quotes with authors who are unknown:

“This isn’t Black people versus white people — this is everyone versus racism.”

“No one is free while others are oppressed.”