NIC has been under a lot of scrutiny as of late over the college’s diversity council supporting the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and the opinions section of the Coeur d’Alene Press has recently been bombarded with letters to the editor written by numerous community members that have taken issue with this decision.
The outrage seems to stem from a lot of misconceptions about the movement itself. These letters from the community call Black Lives Matter anything from radical, racist and destructive, to straight-up anti-American.
Let us get one thing straight: the BLM movement stands to promote equality of all races and ethnicities. The bottom line though is that certain communities within this country are greatly marginalized, often subjecting them to targeted acts of violence.
Equality begins with elevating the lives of those suffering through this negligence and violence until they may receive the same treatment and recognition as the rest.
The BLM movement began in 2013 as a response to the acquittal of the police officer that killed Treyvon Martin. The movement gained national recognition the following year after two more black men- Eric Garner and Michael Brown- were killed by police officers.
Data from multiple sources shows that over 1,000 unarmed African-Americans have been killed by police officers since the movement began six years ago. Police brutality is an issue in and of itself, but the underlying issue is that African-Americans are disproportionately targeted for these acts of aggression.
This past summer, the BLM movement seemed to gain a lot of momentum after the death of George Floyd, which causes widespread outrage not only in the United States but in many other countries as well. Protests to spread awareness of police brutality and discrimination against African-Americans persisted and gained a lot of media coverage through the summer.
The media has played a large role in spreading hurtful misinformation about the BLM movement; primarily reporting on the extreme measures some protestors have taken, like looting and rioting, and depicting the protests as acts of aggression.
While there has been some aggression to come out of the movement, a majority of the protests have been peaceful demonstrations to raise awareness of these issues that do exist and do require action.
The Black Lives Matter organization’s website states its mission is to “eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.”
The goal is to create a level playing field where people of all different backgrounds receive the same power and recognition in our country, and no specific groups will be subjected to discrimination or unjustified acts of violence.
With this, the community has no reason to fear or be outraged by NIC’s diversity council’s decision to support Black Lives Matter, as this movement represents equality, and stands to take necessary action to create safer and more equal communities for people of all races and ethnicities.
Furthermore, the NIC diversity council has not used any of the colleges resources to support the BLM movement. The council’s webpage simply states that they “support constitutionally-protected gatherings that bring greater awareness to social issues faced by minority populations in both rural and urban communities.”
At the end of the day, all lives do matter- there is no question about that- but as it is now, all lives are not treated equally in this country, and it is fundamentally important that people recognize and take action to change the system that marginalizes and violently targets certain communities within it.
