One of my students wore an #ican'tbreathe shirt to my class today. I asked him if he knew what it meant and he said “ yes black man gets {my students acts out someone suffocating him} by white police man” I asked him where he bought it and he said “on Internet” when I asked him why he said “I saw Lebron wear it and I want to stop white men hurting black men and support black men”
Even though all of the protests have stopped (at the moment) and there is still unfair racism, know that the idea of #blacklivesmatter has reached all the way to China. And many of these Chinese people have seen the police brutality on their TVs. Even though I am pretty sure the Chinese government shows these stories so that the Chinese people can understand that the USA isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, many people of China believe that Black lives do matter and are having trouble understanding why there is such racism in the U.S. in the first place.
I want to mention how much this moment really touched me. It’s so easy to see people hate. Especially, hate those who are different them. In the U.S. It is so easy to see white people hate black people or Christians hate Muslims etc. etc. but I believe what can stop that hate is for people to get to know people different than themselves and then a person can realize that you really aren’t that different at all. But this boy bought this shirt and decided to support black people in America before he ever saw one or met one…. I think the world has much to learn from him.