In today’s America, it’s easy to develop a false sense of security about the state of equality in our country. Especially following Barack Obama’s election, the first black president of the United States, many were convinced that equality has been achieved and no further thought is required on the issue. However, simply looking at the numbers demonstrates how misled we’ve all been. For example, blacks have a net worth, on average, that is less than a tenth that of whites, are arrested at much higher rates, and have significantly fewer individuals earning college degrees. It raises many questions — how is this possible? What went wrong? Professor Joe R. Feagin argues the reason behind these discrepancies can be traced to the umpteen more generation whites had to amass their wealth, gain access to government assistance, and better their education that colored people did not. In other words, the differences between blacks and whites we see today can very well be attributed to past waves of slavery, discrimination, and segregation which prevented them from gaining the aide required to propel them to higher socioeconomic strata.

Black lives matter is a movement that has recently surfaced to address these injustices, especially in regards to the unjust treatment of blacks by police. Intriguing data on stop and frisk polices, as well as statistics citing the discrepancy between small population size vs. greater police related deaths for black individuals certainly drives home the much greater instances of police brutality towards black individuals. It is understandable, therefore, that people of color feel as though they are being unfairly targeted by by our law enforcement officers, simply given the overall data. However, while this is certainly an important issue, it must be recognized that resolving police tensions on its own cannot solve the problem entirely. Disparity and inequality is present in nearly every aspect of black life in this country, including education, jobs, and housing. To this end, I tend to agree with Derryck Green position, that too much emphasis on police relations is avoiding some of the larger issues of school performance, unemployment, abortion rates among mothers, that require more of our attention.

I grew up hearing from friends and family that this inequality was simply due to different values and family structures black people had – it was suggested that these problems inherent in the black community were in many ways self-made and brought upon themselves. However, putting their current circumstances in the light of past historical events, I now realize that years of institutionalized racism are to blame. I’m also convinced that to make amends for these wrongdoings and truly send the message that black lives do matter, small steps must be taken from all fronts instead of focusing on one singular aspect of black inequality. We need to gradually work on the aforementioned ‘smaller’ issues in our communities first to address the larger issue of racial inequality.