Racism in America is rapidly increasing. It’s like history repeating itself. It’s not only hurtful, but it’s deadly. Black men are being killed all over America because of the color of their skin, and no one is suffering consequences for these murders. We can make a change by coming together and getting justice for these innocent human beings whose lives were taken. Making these murderers accountable for their crimes will show that regardless of race, everyone matters, and they will be punished to the full extent, as they would if a white man were killed.

What we see today is that in America, black lives don’t matter, they don’t equate to a white person’s life. If things don’t change, the problem will only continue to escalate. Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, these are just a very few of the innocent black men that have been killed for the color of their skin, and their murderers have walked away free, with no repercussion, showing other racists that you can kill blacks without any punishment because they don’t matter.

We’ve gotten to a place in time where taking a black man’s life is justified by “he looked threatening,” and it’s become acceptable.
Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American, was going home from the store when he was fatally shot by a mixed race Hispanic man, who felt like Martin was a threat. On the night of Feb 26, 2012, an unarmed innocent black boy’s life was taken, and his murderer walked away free with no punishment for his crime. This murderer wasn’t remorseful, he didn’t feel bad for what he did because he saw no worth in the life he had taken. This man lost nothing for what he did but Trayvon Martin will never see another day.

Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black man, was approached, accused, choked, and killed by white policemen. He recieved no justice. Garner was approached by a police officer and accused of selling illegal cigarettes. Garner then expressed to the officer that he was tired of always being harassed by police and he just wanted to be left alone. Officers then attempted to arrest him. One officer proceeded to place a chokehold on Garner, which stopped him from breathing. Garner repeatedly told the cops he couldn’t breathe. Garner later died.

The Medical Examiner’s Office spokesman Julie Bolcer said “ His death was caused by the compression of his neck (chokehold), compression of his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police,” with asthma, heart disease and obesity as contributing factors. The policeman wasn’t even charged for the murder of Garner even though the chokehold he put on Garner was illegal in New York. Garner’s life was taken and his murderer didn’t even get a trial for it. His life wasn’t even worth that.

Unarmed Michael Brown, an 18-year-old man, was shot and killed by a white police officer, On August 9, 2014, the officer shot Brown from a distance of 12 times, Brown was hit by seven of the shots.

Many of the witnesses say that Brown had his hands up when the officer fired his gun at him.

In a recent interview that aired on ABC News with Darren Wilson, the officer who murdered Brown told George Stephanopoulos, an American television journalist, “he is sorry” for the death of Brown, but that he would not do “anything different” if he were to relive that day. He also said he did what he was trained to do. He has a clean conscience over his actions that day.

This is time for black men to be very fearful. According to the racist murderer Wilson, police officers are trained to kill unarmed black men. He obviously didn’t care about taking Michael Brown’s life at all. A person with any type of heart, who actually valued a person’s life, would feel some type of remorse for taking it. These are the monsters we let run the streets, not Michael Brown.

White people may disagree and say that the officer who killed Garner didn’t mean to, so he shouldn’t go to jail for it. It was an accident. Regardless if he meant to kill him or not, he put Garner in a chokehold, and the whole purpose of a chockhold is to choke. Chokeholds are illegal in New York so on that information alone, the officer should have faced some jail time. He’s an officer, that wasn’t new information to him. He knew that chokeholds were illegal, yet he did it anyway.

We learn this lesson as children. When you do something that you know is wrong but choose to do it anyway, you have to deal with the consequences…but I guess that doesn’t apply to white people.

White people might also say that the cop shot Michael Brown because he was bigger than him and the cop knew that Brown could get the best of him. How are you a cop and afraid of an unarmed man? Are cops not trained to handle themselves without their guns? Saying because the cop was afraid of Brown is an excuse for taking an unarmed man’s life is dumb to me. It’s not even okay to shoot and/or kill a dog, regardless if they’re attacking you or not. According to a Daily Mail Reporter of DailyMail.com Ivins Rosier, a 17-year-old, African America boy was sentenced 23 years behind bars for shooting a retired police dog. So a dog’s life is more valued than a black life in America.

These people who are murdering black men aren’t facing any repercussion for the their crimes. No justice is being given to the victims or their families. These murderers need to be held accountable for their crimes to the full extent, just as they would if a black man killed a white man.
Be fair, and prove that we are all equal, that we all matter. Black men are dying, innocent black men who don’t deserve to die, because some people refuse to see their worth.

Imagine if you had known these men, if these men were your brothers, a father, a grandfather, an uncle to know that people didn’t feel like their lives equated to anything, that they were nothing. That they were killed for no reason but because they “ looked threatening” and that their murders got away with it because here in America black lives aren’t worth much. If people don’t stand up and make a change and hold these people accountable, I see things worsening and not just with the racist white people who are killing black men, but for people who are tired of it happening. You can’t keep killing off human beings and expect people to stand there and take it. People are going to start fighting back. They’ll fight for justice, and they’ll fight to prove that black lives matter as much as any other race.