Making All Black Lives Matter

After reading the beginning of Making All Black Lives Matter, by Barbara Ransby, I have been further educated on the types of movements and groups for the injustices of African Americans in the society today. I was already aware of the Black Lives Matter movement, but not to the extent that was spoken about in this book. I am also involved in most of the social media platforms that are used today, and I see the things that are posted about racism and police brutality way more than what there should be, and it is most definitely a shame. As we talked more and more about the injustices of black people in America throughout the semester, it is mind blowing to me that these incidents continue to occur as much as they do. I wrote one of my entries for the final project on the shooting of Trayvon Martin, and after reading this book I did not find some of the details that Ransby wrote about in my research. I was not aware that prosecutors were not initially planning to charge George Zimmerman because they believed his story without much questioning. Ransby states, "The only reason a trial was held in the first place was that sustained protests in the streets and on social media, along with pressure from Martin's family, forced local officials to reconsider the initial decision not to charge Zimmerman" (pg. 32). This to me shows that the government continues to allow authorities to abuse their power and turn a blind eye to the real problem in the world, police brutality and racism. It does not make sense that a 28 year old man, whose job is to protect the entire community, felt threatened enough to use his gun on a 17 year old boy that was unarmed. That is why most of the world can not believe how he was found not guilty in this situation. A quote that I completely agree with that Ransby made was, "Black men and boys like Trayvon Martin had already been systematically criminalized, not by their individual actions but by their collective identity, their posture, their positionality, and sometimes even their fashion choices" (pg. 33). People judge African Americans by these examples before they even hear a word come out of their mouth, and I believe that this is one of the main reasons that racism continues to exist in today's society. 

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