Why is talking about the lives of African-Americans such a touchy subject? Why is it that every time a black man or woman comes into contact with a police officer, one ends up on the news? I bet when I ask that last question I pinched a nerve – let’s just talk about it and treat people with respect. Black lives matter too, and they always have, we just never acknowledge the fact that we are human beings as well and should be treated like it. Not only has the news touched the surface on BLM but so has social media.  More people on social media have opened up about this than any other platform I know. I guess what I’m trying to get at is: Police brutality and racism has been going on for centuries and it continues to spread now, so how come it’s blown up on Instagram? Why are people caring now when they didn’t care as much before? All kinds of people posting black screens and in the caption below they say: Black Lives Matter, I mean yeah they do, but what is that black screen doing to help the fight against police brutality? What is that black screen doing to raise money for those put behind bars without a probable cause? Absolutely nothing.  In fact, it was blocking important hashtags with links to resources that were helping with the BLM movement.

Instagram was poppin’ when all the BLM movements were the “hot-spot” of the news, everyone posting black screens with the same captions, and to be honest this would upset me, because it’s like how are you going to say you support something but in reality just need the double tap on your black screen. There’s such a thing known as “clout” – the idea of having all the attention on a social media platform, having all the likes, followers, and well clout you can think of. Well let me just say that a lot of people were, like my man Off Set said, doing it all for clout. Basically posting black screens was popular, however is was blocking the real news, it was blocking people from seeing the important hashtags that included information on how we as a community can come together and support the BLM movement the right way, without black screens, but with polls to vote on and links with information on how we all can help.

I’m glad to say that my generation stood up and did something about it.  Students from this very school held their own polls to vote on, they encouraged people to stop posting the black screen and to start going to peaceful and informational protests together. Eventually less black screens popped up and more people showed out to these peaceful gatherings to learn from one another and share experiences, and really soon we all gained more knowledge about the BLM movement. There was no question about who George Floyd was or justice for Breonna Taylor, because we all knew what happened and were willing to help our community. It’s a beautiful thing when young teenagers and adults can come together without fighting, without drama, and without that black screen blocking the truth from shining through. Let this be a lesson for all of you now, don’t follow – but lead this generation to victory.