Reflective Essay On Black Lives Matter

A population that I do not necessarily understand is the African American community. I grew up in a well-off neighborhood that comprised mostly of elderly white people, so I never really had the opportunity to spend time with African American people. In addition, I went to an almost all-white Catholic school for 15 years so I did not spend time in a diverse atmosphere at school either. Most of the adults in my hometown were extremely racist. These situations posed some real issues for me coming to college because I had only been around white people for 18 years. I have been trying to understand the African American community since I got to college because when I got here the Black Lives Matter movement was in full swing. The summer before

I was completely blind to the struggles of African Americans. I really believed that most police officers were good and they were not corrupt, so I just got angry when people started blaming cops for being murderers and saying that they should have done something different. I was (and still am) biased because my dad is a police officer and my mom used to be a police officer when I was a child. I was raised to believe that police officers are heroes and that they can do no wrong. I obviously now know that real life does not work that way, but I think the optimist in me still wants to believe that the police can do no wrong. These incidents really opened my eyes to the situation that was unfolding and marked the first time I really decided to try to understand the Black community and the Black Lives Matter movement specifically. According to “Timeline” (2016), Black Lives Matter was first sparked when Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman. Martin was only 17 years old when he was killed. The movement formally began when Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter (McCoy, 2014). Ever since then, the movement has been in full swing and has just recently quieted