When you see a police car driving down the street you're walking on, how does its presence make you feel? For white Americans, the police are either a reassuring or an unremarkable presence. For the author and many Black Americans, however, the sight of the police invokes another feeling: fear for life and limb. The Black Lives Matter movement wants to challenge this environment of fear - but it wants to do it in an inclusive manner.
Although Black Lives Matter began in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for Trayvon Martin's murder, the movement quickly became focused on the wide-reaching goal of ending police violence against Black people. It's a disturbing fact that Black people are five times more likely than white people to be killed by California police. In California, where the author is from, a police officer kills a person every 72 hours on average. Shockingly, 63 percent of these people are either Black or Latino.
Within the first year of creating the Black Lives Matter movement, the author found herself sharing more and more names on social media of Black people who had been killed by the police in shocking circumstances. For instance, there was John Crawford, a 22-year-old father. He was shot to death in Walmart. his crime? He was standing in the supermarket's toy section, holding a toy gun in his hand. More infamously, there was Eric Garner, who was very publicly killed by police officers in New York City for the crime of selling cigarettes on the street. His tragic last words as he was suffocated to death were "I can't breath."
Although the Black Lives Matter movement is committed to ending disturbing incidents like these, the author is clear that it's equally committed to inclusivity.
In fact, one of the movement's guiding principles is the participation and leadership of non-gender-conforming activist, such as Black transgender people. In particular, the movement seeks to raise the voices of Black transwomen, who face a disproportionate level of violence in comparison to other trans individuals. The author believes that it is hugely important to fight for the rights of all Black people, not just for those who are cis-gender or gender conforming. It is, she feels, only with full inclusivity that justice for all Black Americans will be won.