Firstly, if anyone here thinks "All Lives Matter"... Well, to be completely honest, I completely agree. Every single life matters. Trans rights matter, LGBTQ lives matter, women's lives matter and just about every life matters. 

The All Lives Matter movement does NOT advocate for equality. In fact, people are using All Lives Matter as a shield to protect themselves from educating themselves about the horrors of police brutality. While All Lives Matter might seem like the way to go, I urge every single one of you to understand what the underlying message of that movement is and do your research before arguing with the protestors. 

Speaking of protestors, I'd like to talk about a subject that is under extreme controversy for damage of private property. The Riots. 

There are two sides to the story. 

The first one is that of the protesters. These acts of violence and vandalism started as a way to get the attention of the government and other public officials. Without these riots, we wouldn't have been able to make the progress that we are starting to see now. A good example of proof of this would be that of the StoneWall riots. Before 1969, the LGBQ community had almost no rights. In June of 1969, people from the community and allies got together to protest against the mistreatment and discrimination against them. They were violent and disruptive, not because of malicious intent, but because they knew that was the only thing that would get the authorities attention. The BLM Protestors are likely following in these footsteps because of how effective it proved to be. 

The other side of the story is that of the business owners and shop owners. These people who depend on these buildings and businesses have lost their entire life's work due to violent protests. They are 100% allowed to complain and curse the protestors, because that is NOT how we're supposed to be getting our point across. 

Both parties are right, and both parties are wrong. There HAS to be a middle ground, and the best news is, we already have it! We should be targeting openly racist, openly homophobic Companies. Companies that can actually afford to lose few stores. Companies that can afford to pay their employees compensation while rebuilding. Not the independent stores that will quite literally lose their entire livelihood if their store is robbed or burned down. I'm not going to name names, but there's are plenty of companies out there who take their racist status with pride, who shun homosexual employees and customers and overall mistreat anyone in the minorities. 

There is also a third side to this. The side that is being pushed out to the front by racist people with power, in order to undermine our cause. Look, I'm going to be honest with you. Bad people exist everywhere, in any community, in any gender. So yes, it is fair to say that there are bad people who are using the protests and riots for their personal benefit. They rob stores like Best Buy and Victorias Secret and take expensive items for personal use. They trash stores that have nothing to do with their cause. 

Lets take a second to talk about our cause. 

The protests are supposed to be advocating against police brutality and asking for Police Officers to be held accountable for their actions. 

I don't see anything wrong with that. POCs are asking for the right to be able to walk around not fearing for their safety and want to be able to ask for justice in case something ever DOES happen. You might disagree with some of the ways that protesters are going about trying to achieve this goal. You might disagree about some of the things they are saying. But if you disagree with the main goal of this cause, you're being ignorant and are actually PART of the reason our people live in fear...