A Story of America

Culture is the stories we tell that shape our actions and the way we live (Harari, Sapiens). The story often being told across America is that of police brutality against minorities, especially black people. It certainly did not start with George Floyd but hopefully his death marks its end. This story affects the way Americans live. I think it is safe, and unfortunate, to say that this story is becoming, if it isn’t already, a part of American culture. 

Powerful protest signs from Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

Another story that has defined American culture for almost the country’s entire history is that of a land of equal opportunity. A place where the tired, poor, huddled masses could come and find a better life. A melting pot where your race would not stop you from finding a good life as long as you worked hard enough. 

The truth behind these stories told to us since primary school turns them into a naïve children’s tale. From the very beginning, the lucky rich have made their good life off of the backs of minorities: the Native Americans they took the land from, the African slaves they built the economy on, the undocumented immigrants they pay meager salaries to then turn around and blame for all the ills of “their country.”

America has a historical tendency to offer equality to the white, rich select and exploit the rest. 

However, this story of the land of the free and the home of the brave has affected the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans; so much so that, believing in this story, Americans across the country are now taking to the streets to protect the promise they still think their country can give.

They see police brutality against minorities and cannot accept that it is part of their America. These are the people working to make the fiction of American equality become a reality. 

Our job is not an easy one. We are working against history. Not just U.S. history, either. Around the world since the beginning of human civilization, minorities and outsiders have been exploited at the cost of creating a “great society.” The Romans wiped out countless “barbarian tribes.”

The Mongols decimated anyone who stood up to them. Western colonizers subjugated and altered countless cultures the world over in the name of the “White Man’s Burden.” All of this was done in the name of “civilizing” the world or for some purpose or other seen as the greater good. Greater good to whom? That’s right, those doing the oppressing. 

 Our job is not an easy one. We will need to work against history to create a reality out of the stories we were told as kids. It will take time, effort, masses, and a lot of change. But it is not impossible.

Giving the present the same fate as the past paints the future in a deterministic view. History wasn’t history until it happened. Black Lives Matter has the moment, the drive, and the numbers necessary to make the changes needed to shape future histories. 

If you need proof, look around the world. BLM protests have formed everywhere from Toronto, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. in North America to Bristol and London in the UK; Paris, Lille, and Lyon in France; Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, and Hamburg in Germany; Lisbon and Porto in Portugal; and even into Asia.

These locations are just several of the many places around the world showing support for Black Lives Matter. This movement may have started in the U.S., but it is quickly becoming a worldwide phenomenon. This may be because oppression and exploitation of minorities is a worldwide problem. 

BLM Black Lives Matter protests Tokyo, Japan

The slave trade was a driving economic force for almost the entire Western world, making it also a driving force for discrimination and inequality. This is not to mention the current Islamophobia stemming from the war on terror. 

In North America, the mistreatment of the black minority is compounded by the continued oppression and exploitation of Native Americans upon whose tears, blood, and stolen land modern states were built, all the way from Canada and the U.S. down to South America. 

In China, oppression and intolerance have all but become government policy. The “re-education camps” run in Xinjiang Province to control the local Muslim Uighur population and bolster the government’s Belt and Road Initiative are, at the very least, unequal and exploitative. 

Around the world, as well as throughout history, intolerance and oppression have become an unofficial trademark of human civilization. The Romans tamed the “barbarians.” The colonizers civilized the “savages.” The rich exploit the poor. The majority oppresses the minority. 

Today’s Black Lives Matter movement is so important especially because of these cultural and historical stories.

We are shaped by history but we do not live in it.

We are influenced by culture, but we can also change it in return. If we start telling stories of minorities mattering instead of being a necessary exploitation, we can shape the future into something better for everyone. We can make a culture that does not tolerate hate, discrimination, and violence. We can make America into the land of equality, opportunity, and freedom. 

A view from above of a huge Black Lives Matter mural painted in bright yellow letters on a wide street

No matter how worldwide intolerance has been, no matter how engrained inequality may be, no matter how long minorities have been oppressed, it doesn’t make the present day situation any less despicable. We are in charge of the stories we tell.

If we want our culture to actually resemble the land of promise America is supposed to be, now is the time to march. Now is the time to make those changes. 

While some may respond that all lives matter, it is important to keep in mind that this is not a point being overlooked or excluded by this movement. Quite the opposite, it is a point being emphasized. All lives matter, especially those that have been oppressed and marginalized throughout history.

Black Lives Matter because they and other minority groups have not been treated as though they matter and, judging by current events, are still not treated as such. Black Lives Matter because all lives matter.

So, just because the story of a black man pleading for breath under the knee of a police officer has become, sadly and horribly, not unique, it does not have to stay part of American culture. Black Lives Matter: Americans are marching for it, the world is supporting it, and it will become part of history. Let’s make sure American culture is on the right side of that story.