For the past decade, a group of vigilantes known as the Black Lives Matter movement has been on the rise, standing for justice and equality for all African Americans in the United States. Since the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, the group has gotten a lot of attention from the media and political figures, who have given their own input on the actions that the group has displayed to show their concern for black men in America. The discrimination and oppression that the black community faces has had a drastically negative effect on them. An increased rate of deaths, false claims, misinterpretations, and judgements of black people has impacted them mentally; research showing that a significant amount of black people in the United States suffer from some sort of mental illness. Due to these factors, black people have begun to unite with one another, making it a mission to uplift each other and embrace their beauty. Can oppression and discrimination, along with the Black Lives Matter movement, play a role in also being a positive outlet to the black community by starting a frenzy of self-love and recognition? And what do the actions of the Black Lives Matter movement have to do with the opinions of the people outside of the perspectives of the black community? While arguing both sides of the spectrum research, ideals, and opinions from the news, doctors, and influential people all assist in helping one understand why they either agree or disagree with a certain side. This also may be able to determine whether the negative factors that black people face are the cause of the rocky relationship between them and authoritative figures. 

African Americans have faced a life of inequality and hardship due to the color of their skin and the perception of those who believed they were a more superior race. Racial discrimination gained most of its recognition during the Civil Rights movement, highlighting the massive killings, bombings, and violence against black people and their property. Today, it is easy to recognize how difficult the life of a black person is simply because they are looked at as a target to people who are in a position of power. To prevent themselves from being depicted as the common stereotype of a gangster or a thug, black people have to change the way they act in front of others in order to prevent being killed or arrested. Within an article titled “Don’t Shoot” by Christian Century, a statement by Jonathan Capehart from the Washington post tells of a conversation he has with his mother. He recalls a time where she gave him advice on how to behave if law enforcement ever approached him. Capehart was intent on following his mother’s directions, being told to “… not run in public, lest I arouse undue suspicion” and to also remember to “never, ever leave home without identification.” In some cases, white people expect not to get in as much trouble with the law because of the benefits of white privilege, which makes situations such as a white police officer killing a black individual or a white judge giving a black person a longer sentence than a white person questionable. Are white people less susceptible to being stopped by a police officer compared to black people? Another revelation mentioned in the article “Don’t Shoot” states that white America does have an idea about this predicament, mentioning that thirty one percent of white people think that “police are more likely to use deadly force against blacks” (Christian Century 2014). Blacks are exposed to being treated unequally by law enforcement daily, mainly because they are looked at as a negative influence on society because of the stereotypical mind that many citizens in American carry. 

Black people continue to experience inequality in America because the people who are responsible for the suspicious killings and sentencings of their community are not brought to justice. How is oppression and discrimination supposed to be stopped if the people who are responsible for protecting others from such acts are also factors in prolonged change? Rion Scott’s article “The Etiquette of Police Brutality” he vividly expresses a variety of examples of law enforcement misusing their authority which leads them to kill innocent people, specifically black people. Scott mentions an incident where Miami police officers detained and choked a black boy simply because it was speculated that he was giving “dehumanizing stares.” He also explains the effects that police brutality towards black people have on people from other countries. People from around the world also experience the inequality that black people face, and he emphasizes this fact by bringing the source of corrupt officials, stating “…police and excessive police force have historically been tools of the state used against the disenfranchised and dispossessed to make sure they don’t get too loud in their cries against their disenfranchisement and dispossession” (Scott 16). By this, Scott suggests that the actions taken by police who kill without cause receive instructions from state officials to keep certain people (specifically black people) in order and remind them of who is in charge when it comes to how they go about their lives. Innocent people fall victim to corrupt officials and it sometimes go unnoticed because the judicial system has its flaws, however the excuses that are used by these people to cover up their wrong doings are not valid enough to dismiss their actions.

The Black Lives Matter movement has grown significantly over the past few years, and many believe that it’s growth has contributed to the rise of deaths of black people, rather than the shear presence of racial discrimination and oppression within the United States. Although it’s purpose is to shed light on the questionable deaths of unarmed black men, some believe that the foundation that the movement is built off of is a lie, and serves to only lash out against ‘defenseless’ police officers. According to Heather Mac Donald, the purpose of the Black Lives Matter movement is to only spread the idea of “phantom police racism” which deters from the black-on-black crime subject. The black-on-black crime card is usually pulled by those who do not understand the difference between it and deaths that have occurred at the hands of police officers. Black-on-black crime is not based on the feelings or outlooks that a person has on the other or the color of their skin, but instead it consists of murder due to drugs and gang violence. Simply put, black people do not kill black people because they are black, they do it because of street cred and survival. Author Ikedi Onyemaobim writes in his article about black-on-black crime and its correlation to police brutality upon black people. He argues that hearing about a black person being killed in America has “become a societal norm”, regardless of it is by another black person or a police officer. He also makes the point that the media focuses more on the violent acts that are committed by African Americans than any other race simply to hype the stereotype of a black person being easily identified as a bad person. So how is the Black Lives Matter movement a falsifying it’s representation of a corrupt police officer? Donald proposes that the police are the victims of persecution and discrimination because of their title and the job they perform. To her, law enforcement uses force because they encounter “confrontations with violent and resisting criminals…disproportionately in minority communities” (Donald 2016). At this point, she claims that resisting criminals more than likely come from violent areas, which happens to be where minorities such as African Americans live. Does the area in which a police officer works excuse them from using unnecessary or excessive force that ends up killing an innocent person? Supposedly not, however Donald clings onto the idea that the Black Lives Matter movement neglects to recognize the danger that police officers put themselves in daily, which can be understood, however they know the danger that they put themselves in before they sign up for the job. 

To delve deeper into the claims that the Black Lives Matter movement is a negative influence, Donald continues by making claims that the movement has had a significant effect on the safety of law enforcement and the public. The protests that took place because of very few police officers being convicted lead the black community to take to the streets to display their frustrations. Donald does not see this as a positive outcome though and thinks that the demonstrations are causing more harm than good for the black community, saying that the Black Lives Matter movement has encouraged a sense of hatred towards police officers, putting them in more danger compared to recent years. As stated in her article, Donald believes that the organization has caused a rise in violence across the nation towards black-on-black crime and police-civilian crime, claiming that “Black Lives Matter activists have organized no protests to stigmatize their assailants”. This suggest that the movement is does not wish to target their own people for killing each other, but instead decides to place blame on law enforcement which in turn only causes more problems instead of solving the ones that are supposedly more important, rendered by Donald. Onyemaobim seems to disagree with Donald on this point, simply because he does not think that law enforcement are as innocent or defenseless as they used to be or how they make themselves appear to be. In fact, he believes that they have become a new problem for all people, not just African Americans by implying we now live in a society where “police are perceived as a threat… gone are the days when police were viewed solely as peacekeepers.” To Onyemaobim, the amount of trust that any American could put into a police officer was reduced long before the arrival of the Black Lives Matter movement, and any other demonstration that is against innocent people being killed. No excuse can be made for hateful actions, regardless of the background of the receiver. 

When a black person thinks of any person in a powerful position, it is almost second nature for them to become anxious, or even afraid imagining an encounter with them, even more so if that person is a police officer. Why is it that African Americans tend to react to an encounter with the law as if they have committed a crime even if they have never been in trouble with the law before? Years of oppression and racial discrimination has led to a few long-term negative effects, such as the rise of mental illness within the black community. In Maya Bynum’s study of mentally stability, she discovers that different factors play a role in the psychological health of an African American and how it effects their relationships with other people and everyday life. Bynum mentions new research shows that an assessment of a situation being racist comes from “a combination of constitutional, socio-demographic, socio-psychological, and behavioral factors…”, explaining that once a situation is thought to be racist, as series of responses are triggered which effect psychological health over time. For the case study, Bynum and her colleagues tested the possible link between racism and internalizing symptoms. At the end of their experiment, they found that racial experiences do correlate with a higher rate of people with symptoms of anxiety, showing, as mentioned by Bynum, that their discoveries are “consistent with the existing literature on the linkages between racism and mental health among African Americans.”  

Vetta Thompson also questioned the mental health among the black community and whether it was linked to racial discrimination, or could other factors, such as socioeconomics, be the real cause of ongoing stress. It is generally believed that the major cause of stress among an African American is their socioeconomic state rather than experiencing racism. Thompson gave the participants a test called the Daily Stress Inventory where they were asked to rate the events in their life based on the amount of stress they were exposed to. At the end of the experiment, she discovered that the stress that African Americans face mainly stems from discriminatory experiences, mentioning that “racism is experienced as more stressful by African Americans…” compared to any other ethnicity. Scientific studies proving that discrimination against black people in America has a highly unfavorable impact towards their mental health illustrates the damage that continued oppression and increased death rates of African American’s has on the entire community. 

So much negativity comes out of police brutality and oppression that black people cannot seem to escape from. Through all of this, how does the black community maintain at least a good bit of their sanity to be able to continue to fight for their rights, promote change, and seek justice for those who never received it? Apparently, people with great influence are starting to become a source of hope for a better future and greater opportunities at receiving the justice that the black community is anticipating. During Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk titled “The Danger of a Single Story”, she discusses her own personal experiences of stereotypical encounters that she has had because of her ethnicity once she moved to America. Adichie talks about her life growing up in Nigeria, and how she was only exposed to books that featured European culture and characters until she discovered Nigerian authors and people who made assumptions about who she was because she was black. This challenged her to neglect the idea of people like herself having a ‘single story’ or a stereotypical assumption about she is just because of the color of her skin and her background. During her lecture, she mentions how focusing on the large negative experiences will cover up the small positive experiences if it is allowed, stating that “… to insist on only these negative stories is to flatten my experience and to overlook the many other stories that formed me. The single story creates stereotypes… they are incomplete” (Adichie 13:01-13:20). Here, Adichie encourages all blacks who feel less because of a single story they have been given by pushing them, and people of other ethnicities, to neglect judging others and themselves based on a stereotype, but rather by what they can learn from them. Having a person who understands what it feels like to be stereotyped and discriminated against enlightening the black community on her experiences and how to feel better about who they are gives the blacks a reliable source of hope and understanding which can help rebuild a broken atmosphere. 

Another influential figure that strives to promote self-love and recognition of blacks because of a long period of oppression and racial discrimination along with a rise in deaths among the black community makes sure that she stays in formation every day. Beyoncé Knowles is one of the top entertainers in the United States, and her platform on the topic of Black Lives Matter shows that she is all for black empowerment. Upon its release on April 23, 2016, Knowles’ visual album Lemonade proved to be a trending topic within the following hours and months after, mainly because of its primary focus on uplifting the black community, specifically black women. She takes us though several different stages that all tell a story that recognizes what a black woman endures daily such as balancing work, family, relationships, along with gender and race issues. Tyler Goodridge evaluates the purpose of Lemonade, saying that Knowles ultimately is an “unapologetically candid womanist who is more than ready to grace the world with her Black Girl Magic.” To Goodridge, Knowles is able convey the truths of being a black woman having a relationship with a black man, and how all relationships such as these, even hers, have their relative issues that most of the time go unseen. Although it may be believed that wealth and fame excludes certain people from enduring ‘common’ events, Knowles is not exempt from experiencing the common course that a black woman takes to make a relationship work, “She is not above the common discourse that frames the fundamental part of the way many Black women are reared from childhood” (Goodridge 2016). The goal of Knowles’ album was to connect with other black women in the world and show them that she may live a different life than majority of them, but she still goes through the same hardships and situations that they do. Knowles takes the viewers through personal experiences that she has had with her husband, her daughter, and her family, expressing the vulnerable parts of a black woman that make up who she is. By using her album to convey her level of black feminism, Beyoncé Knowles Lemonade “celebrates the triumph of the spirit of Black women”, uplifting the spirits of women in the black community, who in turn are expected to be the backbones of the family during a time where black men are being targeted and taken away from their responsibilities. 

Does the influence of oppression and discrimination among the black community then have more of a positive or negative effect? The answer is simply subjective. Depending on what one experiences and decides to expose themselves to may ultimately decide whether a person will look towards the dark side or the bright side. Although African American’s go through trials that more times than none leave them either in jail, dead, or in a situation that doesn’t go in their favor, and it is almost always easier to go with the outcome that doesn’t have a bright side, there are aspects within our society that now serve as an outlet for empowerment and stability. For a while, only bad came from being black in America; it was understandable why the number of black people who suffer from mental illness report that the cause is from the anticipation of enduring racial discrimination. Ongoing stereotypical accusations made against black people leave the community with a very negative connotation to the rest of the world, but influential people and circumstances also allow those same persecutors to recognize the troubles that they face. Without either the negative or positive outlooks, it wouldn’t be possible for the black community to thrive as well as they do, taking each setback and making it a redefined aspect of their lives. 
