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Samantha Bickley

Professor Kane

RC 2001

25 October 2020

A Nation at War

The moment the World Health Organization (WHO) labeled the immense spread of the

coronavirus as a global pandemic, everything fell silent around the world as quarantines were

mandated and all regular activities were put on hold. Things seemed eerily quiet as everyone

began working from home, leaving universities and having few everyday normalities left to live

for. There were no more concerts, no more parties and no masses of people gathered throughout

the country as there used to be. That is until May 25th when George Floyd was killed by police

after suspectfully using a counterfeit twenty dollar bill and the country was once again shown the

racial bias and injustice that African-Americans face every day.

Video evidence surfaced of officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s windpipe while

three other officers stood by while saying and doing nothing. With social media being the most

widespread way to get news out, the video soon went viral sparking outrage all throughout the

country. Protestors gathered in major cities all around the nation demanding justice for his

wrongful death as well as all of the other forgotten victims of police brutality. The Black Lives

Matter movement had been given a new spark to ignite its purpose and intent to establish social

reform and attempt to bring awareness to the racial bias and discrimination that occurs in the

police system and the government itself.

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The Black Lives Matter movement has come into light lately, but the phrase “black lives

matter” has been around since 2013 when social reformer Alicia Garza posted a “love letter to

black people” on Facebook with her closing being “I continue to be surprised at how little black

lives matter” (Cobb). She wrote this article following the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a

neighborhood watch officer who should not have been armed, after killing sixteen year old

Trayvon Martin while he was walking home with his hooded sweatshirt pulled up. The mere

fact that Zimmerman was acquitted should have been a wake up call to the country that there is

some sort of systemic problem when it comes to the government system that is supposed to be

protecting kids like Trayvon Martin.

The controversy came into play when these protests started to become more riot-like,

damaging goods and properties and harming the officers that were supposed to be peacefully

maintaining these protestors. But, we cannot forget the backlash that people faced when actually

attempting to bring peaceful awareness to police brutality and systemic injustice. When Colin

Kaepernick first took a knee during the national anthem of a football game, he was shredded to

bits and pieces by the media for his “disrespect” and he eventually lost an entire year of playing

in the National Football League because no agencies would sign him after his “political stunt”

(Rosenberg). When news agencies continuously asked him why he would not stand for the

national anthem, he repeatedly said that he was bringing awareness to a cause personal to him

and the issue that is plaguing the country through police brutality on unarmed black men

(Rosenberg).

Another athlete who has recently brought light into this situation and is using his platform

to speak out is Lebron James by bringing even more awareness through the sports industry. He

was bashed by Fox News reporter Laura Ingraham where she belittled him and his opinions and
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told him to “shut up and dribble” to which James responded by stating that he, and the rest of the

athletes using their voices are “more than an athlete” (Johnson). How can you sit on the couch

every Sunday and watch these athletes for entertainment while simultaneously disagreeing with

the peaceful use of their platform?

These athletes who are using their voices are being shut down left and right for standing

up for something that needs attention brought to it, even when they are doing so in a peaceful

manner such as kneeling for an anthem that has come to represent a country and government

system based on systemic injustice, so what else is there to do? These peaceful protests are

being disregarded and are not being heard to those who need to hear it, so yes protests are bound

to turn violent in order to get a point across and to be listened to. But, it is not always the

protestors who are starting the violence at these protests. The amount of video evidence that

shows that outsiders and white supremacist exremist groups are entering these protests with the

sole intent to “subvert” the movement are reason to blame for damages as well (Davis). The law

enforcement officials whose purpose is to maintain the peace are firing back with tear gas, rubber

bullets and physical force that has been deemed unnecessary through this same video evidence

(Davis). The places and items that are being damaged can be replaced, but there is no

replacement for the human lives that are being lost and being protested for.

My time here at Appalachian State has opened my eyes to a different culture that I did

not get to experience back home. I grew up in a small rural town in Ohio where we lacked

diversity and things of the sort so being a part of the athletics program here has brought me to

see a ton of new things and meet a ton of new people. I have heard their stories but there was

one significant moment during one of them that has stuck with me to this day.
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Three of my closest friends here on campus, Benjamin Williams, Elijah Johnson and

Milan Tucker, are all members of the football team here and we were all eating dinner together

one night in the cafeteria in the spring after going to a party the night before. Ben and Elijah

were driving my car to come pick me up and take me back to the dorms with them but I did not

know that my tail light was out so they got pulled over on the way to pick me up, which I was

not aware of until that night at dinner. I did not think anything of it until Milan asked what

seemed to be a normal question to the other two boys, “How old were y’all when you had ‘the

talk’?” and then it hit me. They were not talking about the same “talk” that I received growing

up about the birds and the bees and what happens when a man and a woman really love each

other. They were talking about the “talk” that only young black men need to have living in a

country where wearing your hood up means you're a gangster and having a bag of candy in your

pocket is a gun. They said they were eight years old when they were taught the dos and don’ts of

being a black man in America.

This realization was so eye-opening to me, and then I began to think of all of the other

young black kids that are being taught the same things. Darnell Hill is a pastor and mental health

case worker who teaches an unofficial guide to “being black” (Anthony). Among these

guidelines are specific rules that he lays out to the kids looking for support, such as speaking in

short sentences, making sure your hands are always seen and always listening to directions no

matter what the circumstances are (Anthony). I had never had to experience something like this,

and quite honestly I never will because my skin is white and their skin is not.

Recently, the athletics program here at Appalachian has taken a stand against racial

inequality by organizing zoom meetings, marches and providing all athletes with tee shirts with

the more than an athlete slogan written on it. But the backlash received from the community of
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Boone that seems to praise this football team is ridiculous. Comments from social media posts

stating that Black Lives Matter from the university are from “fans” that are “upset that politics

are being involved” and that they are “no longer supporting the university” after the simple

statement that these athletes' lives matter.

I am impressed by the effort made by the athletic programs here as well as people like

Colin Kaepernick, Lebron James and Alicia Garza for using their abundance of platforms to help

bring awareness to this movement. The protests that have become violent are years of built up

anger that has not been received through these peaceful movements, and they are finally being

heard. There is still so much to be done in order to keep moving forward with this movement,

but as a community we can begin to start change here in Boone.

Works Cited
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Anthony, Cara. “The Unwritten Rules Black Americans Learn To Navigate Racism.” Time,

Time, 17 June 2020, time.com/5854455/unwritten-rules-to-navigate-racism/.

Cobb, Jehlani. “The Matter of Black Lives.” New Yorker, vol. 96, no. 21, July 2020, pp. 18–23.

EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=144644667&site=eds-

live&scope=site.

Davis, Deborah L. “Why Are Peaceful Protests Turning Into Riots?” Psychology Today,

Psychology Today, 2 June 2020, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/laugh-cry-

live/202006/why-are-peaceful-protests-turning-riots.

Johnson, Victoria E. “Sporting Community: Activism and Responsibility in Turbulent Times.”

Television & New Media, vol. 21, no. 6, Sept. 2020, pp. 590–595. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1177/1527476420919696

Rosenberg, Michael. “Truth Teller.” Sports Illustrated, vol. 127, no. 18, Dec. 2017, pp. 60–62.

EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=126610279&site=ehost-live&scope=site..