Black lives do matter, but the BLM organization defrauded citizens and corporations to the benefit of its founders and that is a tragedy. Others used the "movement" to justify riots and violence as some form of perverse social justice and in some ways furthered stereotypes.
In my opinion, the money raised by the movement should have been used to address racial unfairness within the justice system. Had the money that was raised been used to shine a light on where our justice system was failing at administering equal justice, we might have taken a big step forward.
The real problem in our justice system was highlighted by the conviction of Trump yesterday. While not inherently racist or bigoted, our justice system does not have the controls to rein in a racist or bigoted judge or a racist or bigoted police officer until the damage is done.
How many black men have been found guilty and sentenced to prison without a fair trial? How many black men have gotten far longer sentences than white women guilty of the same crime? With regard to police officers, we have the profiling technology to identify racist police officers based on their histories, why don't we use it? Ditto, for judges?
In the case of the Trump trial, imagine instead of Trump, an elected racist white judge was ruling on the acts of black man who did not have the resources to appeal, what mechanisms does our justice system have to insure "fairness"?
In some ways, the Trump trial has brought home to nearly all Americans, whether they think Trump is guilty or not (if they paid attention to the trial), how someone can be railroaded. Now imagine that someone is a "black man" with no resources to protest the abuse... if an ex-president can't be protected from a bigoted judge, what chance does a black man have?
I don't believe in "social justice", but I do believe in equal, fair, and blind justice. Black Lives Matter should have helped our nation pursue that goal especially for black men who suffer the most from unequal justice, especially in the area of sentencing... instead its thunder was stolen for selfish gain.
