Essay On The Black Lives Matter Movement

It is easy to wonder why the erasure of black history is important, and how it ties in with the Black Lives Matter movement. The simplest explanation is that everyone has a right to understand their culture and their past. The majority of United States history consists of discussing the accomplishments of white presidents, inventors, explorers, and businessmen. Not acknowledging the existence and impact of slavery on America and on the black community can lead to the implication that only white people did anything of import for the majority of American history. This implication can cause an entire generation of children to believe that their race is not as important or influential as another. Excluding slavery and racism from history books means excluding the inspiration caused by those who fought and occasionally lost everything just so that they could see justice. At the same time, rewriting the injustices of the past provides an excuse for people to continue to oppress an entire race. The Black Lives Matter movement wants the history of the black community to be well known so that the systems of oppression are undeniable and so that it can be acknowledged that this oppression is still present today. There are over two thousand failing high schools in the United States, and most of them are found in low income areas with large minority populations
Failing school systems lead to very low graduation rates, which means that there are many young kids not going to school and struggling to find any kind of employment. While it is a fact that black youth are not the only children to attend failing schools, “the national graduation rate is 59 percent for black males, 65 percent for Latinos, and 80 percent for white males” (Superville). This means that the failures of the education system have a greater effect on the African American community than on other