Black Lives Matter

I enjoyed reading the first couple chapters of Making All Black Lives Matter a lot because the material is something I'm very familiar with. I am a twenty year old boy with every social media account possible, so I have seen and read many things online about the incidents talked about in the beginning chapters of the book. These incidents are perfect examples of how racial profiling and injustice for African Americans is still a ginormous problem in the United States. For example, Ransby explains, " In a crude and deadly case of racial profiling, Zimmerman saw Trayvon's skin color and profile and concluded he was up to no good" (pg. 29). Martin was followed just on the basis of his skin color and what he was wearing. Zimmerman then caught up to Martin and fatally shot him, claiming self-defense (pg. 29). Then, Ransby explains, "[…] George Zimmerman was found not guilty after a highly publicized trial" (pg. 32). When I first saw this story circulating on social media, I believed that there was no way this man was not guilty. It was hard for me to believe that a grown man had to use a gun on a defenseless teenager for "self-defense".I was in utter shock when I heard he was not guilty. In addition, Ransby gives another example of racial profiling when she talks about the shooting of Michael Brown. Ransby explains how Wilson stopped Brown because he needed to be "checked" (pg. 47). This, just like in the case of Martin, is racial profiling because Wilson suspected Brown to be "up to no good" based on his skin color. Furthermore, Ransby explains, " Wilson later testified that Brown 'looked like a demon' on the day the confrontation and killing occurred. In other words, he was not afforded the status of human---not because of what he had done but because of who he was" (pg. 48). He called a teenager a "demon" not because he talked back to Wilson, but because he was Black.  If you switched out these Black teenagers with white teenagers I would bet that these killings would not have happened. These killings not only show that there is still a huge ongoing problem of racial profiling in the U.S., but also show that there is still injustices in the system as a whole.

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