I’m pretty sure that we are all aware of the activist movement, #BlackLivesMatter, that was started in July of 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who was charged with the murder of Trayvon Martin. Now I am sure that you are all also aware of the opposing topic #AllLivesMatter, which was created to counter the movement. The reoccurring question is do black lives matter or do all lives matter? This can all be answered with three words…

Black Lives Matter…

And when I say that, it does not mean that black lives are superior. I am saying that because if not for the innocent lives loss to police brutality, street killings, or psychopaths shooting up churches, this movement wouldn’t be necessary.

This topic is so great that is has even reached the Democratic Debate, where the candidates were asked whether black lives matter or all lives matter. Democratic-Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders was said to have nailed the question with answer that America needed to hear. “Black lives matter. And the reason those words matter, is because the African American community knows that at any given day, some innocent person like Sandra Bland, can get into a car, and three days later she’s gonna end up dead in jail. Or their kids are gonna end up shot. We need to combat institionialized racism from top to bottom and we need major reforms to this broken criminal justice system.”

Even some of Bob Jones Students think the movement is necessary. “The #BLACKLIVESMATTER movement is trying to shed light on the fact that somebody is black doesn’t mean that they fit the stereotype of the black statistic,” said Bob Jones senior Cassidy Wilson.

Underclassmen Jonikqua West said, “I think the black lives matter movement is important because of everything that has happened to black individuals this year. If all lives mattered, then the black lives matter movement wouldn’t even exist.”

Now, there are always two sides of the story, and I was able to see the #ALLLIVESMATTER side through the words of high school senior Maggie Martin. “I think BLM is a good concept, I guess, but I truly believe that a lot of the ‘black discrimination’ or the police brutality against African Americans is asked for by the victims. #ALLLIVESMATTER is a better movement because it shows that all people are affected by discriminations or police brutality or prejudice. Which is better than saying just black lives matter when there’s 100’s of other nationalities that are discriminated against everyday.”

My simple answer to this question is that morally, All Lives Matter, but now we need to focus on the black ones because it seems that our judicial system isn’t colorblind. All lives include black lives, period.