black lives matter Archives - Black Lives Matter

It’s Exhausting Being Black in America

September 29, 2020ccarthern

This post is for any black person going to work still and their employer and co-workers expect you to act like everything is normal. We are in the middle of a pandemic that is affecting black people more, we have witnessed Ahmaud Arbery’s murder, Breonna Taylor has been murdered by cops without being charged, George Floyd was lynched on video, Rayshard Brooks was gunned down and the list goes on. Now they tell us blacks are “hanging” themselves from trees. We are not required to operate as normal. Too often blacks have had to remain professional at work to spare white people from being uncomfortable. This stops now. I saw… Read More

The Power of the Black Dollar

September 16, 2020ccarthern

Recall that blacks had to sit in the back of the bus and if a white person boarded the bus and they were the only black in a seat then the law was that they had to give up their seat to the white person. We as consumers have power. Never forget why the Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful. Blacks accounted for approximately 40,000 bus riders which was 75% of the city’s bus riders. They wanted black drivers, segregation laws and a first-come, first-seat policy. They made sacrifices to sustain the boycott. They organized carpools, black taxi drivers charged the same price as bus fare and many people walked. The boycott lasted 381 days. Companies today wouldn’t last that long in a boycott. Covid-19 has shown us that. Black buying power is close to $2 trillion dollars… Read More

The Black Experience in Corporate America

September 9, 2020ccarthern

Black people make up 13.4% of the US population, but only 3.3% of all US corporate executive or senior leadership roles were held by Blacks in 2018. Data taken from the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Only FOUR, less than 1%, of the current Fortune 500 CEOs are Black and ZERO are women. Corporate American has been failing black America for centuries. This is a form of systemic racism. There are talented non-white men that can lead companies. It makes absolutely no sense that you have white men making decisions for an entire consumer population. Companies have no problems advertising using black culture but won’t put us in power positions… Read More

Why Do Black Lives Matter Now?

June 15, 2020January 18, 2021ccarthern

Something has been bothering me since George Floyd’s murder. What made this murder enough for white people to finally protest? Blacks have been telling you about racism in the US forever. There is this fantasy that since slavery is over and on paper, we are equal and that everything has been fine. Stop complaining. You see the statistics and you have even seen the videos but we always face the same questions. What did the victim do? What is his criminal record? I truly believe if people were not forced to sit home and actually watch the George Floyd video that most of the world wouldn’t have protested. It took a… Read More

Why Defunding the Police is Only Part of the Solution

June 11, 2020June 11, 2020ccarthern

What does defunding the police mean? It doesn’t mean abolishing the police. It simply means moving money from the police and putting into other things that are for citizens wellness. We not only need more body cameras, but we need laws for officers that deliberately turn off their cameras. What are they trying to hide? Officers should be forced to intervene when they see officers cross the line or they themselves are complicit. We need laws for excessive use of force. The officer that killed Eric Garner used an illegal choke-hold but didn’t face any consequences. Even when they are breaking the law the officers are not punished. We need… Read More

America is Racist

May 30, 2020ccarthern

I am an American and America is racist. This is nothing new and America is what we thought it was. So many people, especially whites, think racism has improved by great strides in America. Oh, you mean because we are not sold and purchased anymore. I guess we should be satisfied with that. People say we have allies and whites have contributed to this change but there are some that the history books celebrate when they shouldn’t. First of all, let’s clarify that racism and slavery are two different things. You can be against slavery and still be racist. Let’s investigate these white “allies” that people have praised in American… Read More

Kaepernick: YOU Are Part of the Problem

August 10, 2017April 22, 2020ccarthern

Everyone that has stated Kap was wrong or not addressing the actual problem is no different than people during slavery and civil rights movement that stood quiet. People are afraid to stand up when they know something is wrong and continue on with it just like it was done during slavery and during the civil rights era. People always feel deplorable about slavery and wonder how this could have happened and that they would never agree with it. I disagree. People fall in line and go with the flow no matter how bad it is. By not speaking out you agree with it. How many people agreed… Read More

All Lives Matter: Restrictions Apply

August 15, 2016June 25, 2020ccarthern

My mind takes me to the X-Men. Are we seen as mutants? Why can’t we be treated equally? We have to understand that yes some cops are bad, not all blacks are criminals, all whites are not racists, all Mexicans are not illegal and all Muslims are not terrorists. Until you truly understand this and stop judging people before getting to know them things won’t change. I understand most of you may not have friends of other races and may have had bad experiences with them but they are NOT representative of ALL. There is corruption in many police departments and in the judicial system to include prejudices so why… Read More