Defining What Exactly Is The Black Lives Matter Movement

A lot of times certain events occur in history which leave negative impacts on people. These events not only scar people from their current living standards, but also lead on to other negative situations. Many situations have occurred in history which have caused injustice, damage to society, and even stereotyping against certain people. In result to this, often at times these circumstances cause humans to forcefully behave differently and feel unwelcome, rather than just their character or personality. These types of situations can be in any form, such as punishment, negligence, and even hatred. One of those situations, which is capital punishment on black people, has been the leading issue from time to time, and has still been continuing up to today. Known to be a very controversial issue in the world, it has taken different truths from many peoples sides and perspectives.

In relation to worldwide issues and debates, my focus is racism. When one thinks of racism, the word race is derived from it. Being created as a negative platform, used to not only stereotype against people, but deprive them from their living standards, racism is known as the “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior”. Since it is a threat to global peace, society, and the world itself, racism has caused, and is continuing to cause major concerns and consequences for people and the universe. The harshness and negative behaviour being portrayed throughout the everyday life just by creating phenotypic differences in skin color, has unfortunately bought tourture to humans. The problem that will likely be the focus of my essay, which relates to racism, is capital punishment on black people. This is because there is a strong representation of injustice among people of color.

Throughout history, people of color have been known to be victims of such cruel opposition. These innocent people have been known to be murdered, abused, and held back from freedom because of the disgusting hatred against them. Research shows that among Hispanics and Latinos, the race most known to this mistreatment is Blacks and African Americans. In many parts of history, many negative events have revolved with black individuals, such as slavery, the creation of Jim Crow Laws, and even mass incarceration which have all been a part of racism. One major focus however, is capital punishment on black people. Capital punishment is known as the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime. Even though it is known as the legal authorization of killing due to punishment, capital punishment was used more as a form of punishment on purpose to black people. It was often used as an act of hatred, and even portrayed as injustice.

Capital punishment is a problem that is significant/important, because it is an ongoing issue that why should black people be charged and killed for crimes that aren’t done by them? Often when higher rates of crimes would occur, black people were charged for them and taken into custody. Black individuals were locked up, the minors were taken to detention centers, taken to prisons, and even charged for petty crimes or small misdemeanors, which most of the time weren’t even done by them in the very first place to begin with. Many of the harshest punishments were enforced upon them such as death penalty which is a form of capital punishment. Execution, and even police brutality as well occurred in the criminal justice system. More than the population which existed was arrested. By saying this, it meant that a lot of the black race, mostly the whole amount was being charged for many undone crimes.

Statistics show that due to this, it has sparked many controversial debates, because of the opinions and opposing viewpoints shown by people. Capital punishment has been brought up as being racially biased. This is because the numbers represent that 89 percent of the executions involved black defendants, whereas only 75 percent of those who were charged for crimes were white. Due to different sides, many people expressed their agreements and disagreements with capital punishment. For instance about half of the American public claimed that the death penalty was not imposed frequently enough, whereas the other half said it’s not done fairly in the system. Research showed that in 1976, 35% of those executed were black, even though the black population at that time was only 12%. Following in 1990, numerous studies showed that there was racial discrimination involved in the death penalty and capital punishment.

Numerical data as well showed that a defendant was several times more likely to receive the death penalty if the victim was white, and that people of color being killed didn’t matter. Those who were killed were subjected based on their racial profile, but another issue arose, which was “what if someone is not proven guilty, however still put on death row due to being black”? This relates to capital punishment on black people because it relates to the number of those who were mistreated more than any other race. A lot of times the Supreme Court would never have a legitimate reason to put a black victim on death penalty, and mainly forced it upon them without actual evidence. In result, due to evaluating these issues, a lot of rising groups, such as movements, campaigns, and even platforms rose to course of action by ordering to make changes to it.

Connecting to this, the Black Lives Matter Movement which is an international activist movement, created in the African-American community, that campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards black people; these were one of the steps to stopping the unfair treatment and injustice among the black community. Black lives matter, a more current form of the Civil Rights Movement, which was was an organized effort by black Americans to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights under the law which began in the late 1940s, was another platform that is today's present day source to stand up and take action against violence and hatred against black people.

The Black Lives Matter movement was known to be against the injustice and unfair treatment against innocent blacks, and taking action by giving attention to the shared struggle with all oppressed people. Supporters such as President Obama, as well as other Black Lives Matter individuals, expressed reasons disagreeing with capital punishment on black citizens because they believed that the racial bias, wrong imprisonment, and executions were unfair. However, those who were in favor, such as President Trump and his administration don’t reason with believing that it’s unfair because if a person was guilty, they should be executed, which on a scale were mostly a huge number colored people than the percentage that actually existed or committed these crimes, also concluding without actual evidence.

Research shows that even though many people agreed with Black Lives Matter, and expressed strong negativity and hatred towards capital punishment, because they found it to be unreasonable, unlawful, and a form of injustice, there were many who still supported this, and wanted it to continue. What was challenging was to figure out the perspective of those who agreed with forms of capital punishment, by means, those who were aware of the percentage of people of color being murdered, which was more than there existed. This was due to the fact that these very same people who agreed with capital punishment also knew that there were a higher number of blacks taken into custody, and being killed and found guilty for crimes that weren’t done by them in the first place.