Black Lives Matter Pros And Cons

Since our nation’s inception, Americans have repeatedly struggled to agree on many issues – the role of the federal government, the pros and cons of economic growth, and our role as a nation on the global stage. Only one issue, however, has led to civil war in our country– the issue of slavery. When wealthy landowners began buying and importing African Americans as slaves, they created a stark division between blacks and whites. A bloody war was fought to settle the matter, yet we still face issues of race today. Discrimination and racism have divided our nation more than any other, throughout our history, and are problems we are still attempting to solve. While there were times when discrimination reached further than African Americans—Germans, Irish, and others—the tensions against the African American community is most prevalent throughout all eras. In colonial times, slavery was regarded as an important component of the United States’ economy and a large contributor to the production of goods, especially in the South, where plantations depended upon thousands of slaves to grow and harvest their crops and maintain their houses and grounds (Hewitt 2013). Slave owners were dependent on this “free” labor for their income, and the slaves were dependent on the plantation owners to provide them with food and shelter. The nation was …show more content…
The Black Lives Matter movement campaigns against violence and systematic racism against the black community, most specifically by the police force. While the Black Lives Matter Group proclaims a non-violent platform, violence has erupted, most notably in Dallas this summer when five police officers were killed by a sniper during a Black Lives Matter protest. This movement is just one of many examples exhibiting the tensions dividing the races even