Black Lives Matters is an organization that was created in 2012, not long after the death of Trayvon Martin. He was murdered in his neighborhood by George Zimmerman (Estrada). Black Lives Matters started off as a simple sentence, and to this day that is exactly what it remains to be. The organization was created because nationally and globally this statement is still not accepted by a large number of people. Black Lives Matters did not become a big movement until people noticed there were more killings of black people that were swept under the rug. Most of these killings were done by police officers. There have been many cases where black men, women, and even children were murdered by police and majority of these cases were acquitted and ignored. According to Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post, there have been over thousands of shootings yet only 54 officers have been charged. The organization wants to get the message out that black people are all human just like everyone else. It is hard for some people to accept that these things are happening because they do not understand what it is like to be a black person in America.
I believe that Black Lives Matters can be better understood if some people were to read “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”. I recently read this book for an English course at my university. This book was very interesting because it made me realize how we as humans are quick to believe that someone can be lesser than us. We all have the same 24 hours in a day and we all breathe the same air. When I finally completed the book, the only question that came to my mind was “What makes you a human?” After several class discussions, I paid very close attention to some of the questions our professor asked us. I paid even closer attention to what some of the students were saying. It amazed me how some of the students made one group of people more important than the other. One particular example that stood out to me was when our professor compared the attacks in Paris to the ones in Syria. On Facebook there were posts from all over the world and people were praying for both place. Some students deemed Paris more important than Syria because they were already a “war zone”. However, both of these places were victims of attacks they had no control of. There were men, women, and children in both places that mattered to someone. Yet, Paris was more important because they were not a war zone. So I had to take the time out and ask myself, do these lives in Syria not matter? What makes these people less human than the ones in Paris? I can apply this same thought process to Black Lives Matters. Instead the question is, are Black people less human than other races?
Many people believed that the Black Lives Matters movement would not last because it was taken as a joke. Some people believed it was a group of terrorists seeking attention from the public. Most of their coverage is captured when there is a case that blows up in the media. Most recently, when there is a suspect killed by police. Some of the bigger cases that Black Lives Matters have been involved with have come and gone. However, they are still heavily involved in the cases that may not have as much media coverage as the others. Some of Black Lives Matters biggest cases include Mike Brown, Freddie Gray, and Walter Scott (Yan). These cases were the biggest because of the footage that was captured during the incidents. On August 9, 2014 was the fatal shooting of Mike Brown (Yan). There was no footage of Mike Brown until after he was lying on the ground. However there were many witnesses to attest to what happened during the police shooting. Many witnesses said that Mike Brown was surrendering to the police, but he was still shot 12 times even though he had his hands up. The organization started from just a hashtag after the killing of Trayvon Martin. After many people began using the hashtag, the organization was formed and has spread to many cities across the U.S..
The Black Lives Matters movement does not cover each individual death as something tragic that has happened in our country. They want to create a message on what it is like to be a black citizen in America. They have supporters of all races and religious backgrounds that may have witnessed how black citizens are treated. Some people from these groups may have experienced some kind of unfair treatment at some point in their lives as well. Black Lives Matters has coverage of incidents that have happened after Martin’s death up to this day. Alicia Garza, one of the Black Lives Matters founders, says, “When we say Black Lives Matters, we are talking about the ways in which black people are deprived of our basic human rights and dignity” (Howard).
Something that is greatly misunderstood about Black Lives Matters is that it is a hate group, which it is not. Even though the organization has been around for a few years, some still do not understand what Black Lives Matters stands for. There are people who believe that Black Lives Matter is trying to create a race war and a war against police officers. This is where Blue Lives Matter came from and they are in support of police officers and how they are not wrong in any of their killings. There has also been other groups likes White Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, and there are many others. These other groups believe that Black Lives Matter is trying to become the superior race. That is nowhere near what they want to do. Their main message is to educate people on violence and incrimination against black people and how they are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state. Black lives are sometimes deprived of basic human rights and dignity. Black Lives Matter can’t be a hate group if we allow other races and groups to join us. There have been many marches where Whites, Asians, Hispanics, and more have united with blacks to defend the race. They have witnessed what these people have been through and realized it is wrong. I have experienced this with a few of my father’s colleagues and even at my university. My father has served in the military for over 22 years and is still currently doing so. Some of his fellow soldiers have witnessed what black citizens go through and have even heard stories from my father. They see no color in the military and believe all people should be treated the same, especially in a country where they are fighting for freedom.
Sometimes Black Lives Matter activists have been described as terrorists because of some incidents where black people have attacked people, destroyed homes and neighborhoods, and more. These people may have acted out but they do not do it to kill or put terror in anyone. It is more so a cry of frustration of what is going on with our people. There have been riots where people have destroyed their own neighborhoods but this is because these individuals do not know how to peacefully protest. They are not official members for Black Lives Matter they are just angry people who just so happened to be black. One group of people does not represent for our whole black community. There is always going to be someone from each race, religious group, culture, and so forth that will misrepresent a group. Therefore we cannot assume they are all going to be the same just because those people may have acted out.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was an interesting book about humans versus androids. Androids look just like humans on the inside and outside. They are actually slaves on Mars to humans. Some of the androids escape and come back to earth. There is also a big corporation on earth, the Rosen Corporation, which builds an advanced type of android called a Nexus-6. These are the androids that are hard to distinguish from humans. The main character Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter that basically hunts for androids living among humans. In the book we get a look at what happens during one of Rick’s assignments. Rick is assigned to kill a few fugitive androids, or as they say in the book “retire”. In order to tell who is android or not, Rick has to administer a test called the “Voigt Kampff”.
In our book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep you can relate the androids to Black Lives Matters . The main character Rick Deckard has a moment of realization when he comes in contact with an android named Luda Luft. Some of the androids may have tried to attack Rick and even his colleague, Dave Holden, was in the hospital because an android attacked him. Rick realized that Luda Luft just wanted to be human and do human things. She was nothing like the other androids he had come across. He knew that all androids were not the same and some just had bad intentions and that there were good androids too.
The main question after comparing the two is, What Makes Us Human? In the book androids had to take a test based off of their empathy towards situations. Everyone has their individual level of empathy. Some of the students in my English class believed that if we all as humans were to take the Voigt Kampff test today, we would pretty much fail. We all react to certain situations differently. So the Voight Kampff test was not reliable to determine if you were a human or not. Black Lives Matters does not have a test to determine why their lives are less important than others. Yet they are still disregarded as if they are not human sometimes. There are many questions that this book makes you think about. I believe it all depends on how you process things as a human. Some people scratch the surface of topics but may not go deep into detail to figure out the message. This book helps you look at people’s existence and their qualities of life in a new light. In your head you may think to be considered a human you have to have two legs, two arms, two eyes, a brain, and so forth, but then you have to realize not everyone has those things. For example, a Vietnam veteran may have 1 leg, no arms, and 1 eye. Then he could have a pet at home with 2 legs, 2 arms, and so forth, but does that make the dog more human than him? You can think of all the things that human bodies may have but then you have to realize that this can apply to animals as well. So are they human too? What really makes you a human?
We also have to realize, at one point during the Jim Crow Era, a black man was considered to be three-fifths of a white man. This was less than 200 years ago. Some people are still alive from the most recent generations of whites and blacks that were racially segregated. There is still no definition of what makes someone a human, and even more interesting what makes you only part of a human. Black Lives Matters fears that we are heading back to that Jim Crow Era because of the way that people disregard black lives as if they are not important. I believe that Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep makes you look at these issues. This book really gives you a different perspective on what you value as a human. These humans in the book based their empathy off situations dealing with animals. If you care for animals then that makes you human. We have people in our world today who purposely abuse animals that are considered humans but if they were to take the Voigt Kampff test, they would automatically be treated as an android. So in conclusion, this book, if analyzed correctly will make you ask some very tough questions. What makes you human and Does your life really matter?