Black Lives Matter is Wrong
It doesn’t matter what their skin color is like, where they are from, or who they really are. All Lives Matter.
I was in the office at Seoul. After doing some paperwork, I needed to take a brief break. I opened up my phone, read an article about an innocent citizen who lost his life because of a policeman’s erroneous action. His name was ‘George Floyd’, and I got frustrated. In the video, he was begging that he couldn’t breathe, and the police didn’t care for nuts until his breath stopped. I thought we were living in year 2020, but realized some people like a policeman in the video acted as if it was a primitive era. I was truly sad that this had to happen in this world we live in together.
The next day in the bus to my work, I looked into instagram and several posts were just blank with single black color, hashtaged #BlackoutTuesday. It didn’t took long for me to realize that all these actions were about George Floyd. It appeared to have moved many people’s mind including some of my friends. I started to look up for some more movements related with this crisis, and was able to discover the U.S. that I never knew before.
People were full with rage. They were destroying traffic lights, breaking into stores, setting streets with fire. They were wearing ‘Black Lives Matter’ shirts showing that they were protesting for the rights of the black people, carrying handful of goods like iPhone and nike shoes by shoplifting. Some were just fulfilling their desires Behind the terms ‘righteousness’ and ‘protest’. I did know not every ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests were violent, but felt bad for these aggressive behaviors were leading ‘Black Lives Matter’ into wrong direction. These people were justifying their acts of devastation., assuming every other people as racists who discriminated, disregarded, and disrespected.
While reading medium posts and articles about this ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, I also found an article about an elderly Korean man attacked by a black male while waiting for bus. The black male assaulted this man because he hated to ride a same bus with asian. Due to coronavirus pandemic, which was once stated as ‘The Chinese Virus’ by Donald Trump, illusions have been made that asians carry around coronavirus, which is not true at all, but just a fiction.
There have been a lot of oriental discriminations similar to this elderly man being attacked. A Chinese doctor was dragged off in an overbooked airplane, Korean women was chased by a rapper who sprayed her with hand sanitizer. Much more incidents have happened, with only reason : you are asian and I hate it. Every time I read and reiterated these articles, I felt listless. Tide of rage surged through me. However, even though it keeps on happening, I don’t blame every westerners or blacks. No. I don’t blame any westerners or blacks; I don’t prescribe them as either westerners or blacks.
It is some individuals who misbehave with wrong thoughts, not the whole. I hope these miserable situations won’t show up again, but I also assume that it would happen again someday in the future, because there always is a renegade who does not fit in to the norms of the society.
Black lives does matter, and it’s a true statement. However, blacks are not the only ones that matter. I’m not trying to offend the white policeman. He’s a cutthroat who is nothing but waste of words. I’m not saying blacks are empathic. What I hope everyone to perceive is that one should not be divided by its race, skin color, nationality, gender, or religion. Lives of people in Hong Kong, fighting for their freedom matters. Lives of children in Syria, suffering from civil war matters. All human lives matter. Every each person should be respected in itself. The policeman should be treated as a jackass moron that doesn’t think before act, rather than a wicked white racist who hates every single black even if he thinks himself as a racist. People may rage against the racist policeman, but shouldn’t express the anger to every other white. George Floyd is a miserable victim who got into this crisis, not a prey of white.
I strongly believe in the power of protest. Making a movement to change something wrong or unacceptable is one of the best action that can be made to claim legitimacy. Back in 2017, Korea, I have experienced the power of protest as we gathered around together each other with a candle light, and made it to the resignation of formal president Park. Destroying, and Looting selected stores that aren’t owned by black for expressing anger, sugarcoated as protest is wrong. It is nothing but a riot. It is another discrimination against the whole that dims the real message of ‘Black Lives Matter’. It is a huge mistake generalizing racists with others who aren’t.
This crisis that happened in Minneapolis should not be forgotten, nor be just passed by. I hope it doesn’t just end up as white and black. I hope everyone to look back on themselves and respect each other as a human being. At least I have made a promise myself : never judge or specify someone with something in fragments. All Lives Matter.
Picture and Media Credit : AFP via Getty Images, FMKorea, BreakNews Korea
