Written by Kayla Lammers (Features Writer)
The BLM movement has been around since 2013, when Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old boy, was shot and killed in Florida. Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi formed the Black Lives Matter Network. Their mission is to “eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.” It’s been around for seven years and this is the largest the movement has swelled.
Books on the subject of equality have made a comeback. Not necessarily new books specifically. Prior to recent protesting, books regarding equality were available but not very popular. With the changes in people speaking out about equality, and how people shouldn’t be discriminated against and just treated with kindness, those books have resurfaced.
The people who agree with BLM and related topics pick books in accordance to further understand and educate themselves. Other people who disagree or are “staying out of it” keep on walking. They don’t pick up the book because they won’t take the time to understand the other side, what the protesters and advocates are trying to say, trying to raise awareness about.
Those people, the ones that don’t deal with prejudice and discrimination so they don’t think it’s a problem, those people are the ones that need to read these books. That’s why we are in the vicious cycle of never ending hate is though education.
Subconscious racism takes place in hospitals, the work place, classrooms. It’s everywhere. To stop it you have to acknowledge it. We know it’s there, so we should talk about it. Without starting an argument or unleashing tear gas when people are being peaceful about a serious subject; when they are keeping their head while others are losing their life. We need to do this as a whole country. Some places are ahead of the game, they don’t let racism control them outloud, but I can guarantee that it’s still there.
There are beautifully written and illustrated books, from picture books like It’s Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr, to The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, to White Fragility by Robin Diangelo.
The Claw 