Tiny little Raindrop

Since the year 2000 there have been more than 220 school shootings resulting in injuries or fatalities in America. In the more recent years, some of the injuries have occurred during safety classes where a teacher is going over gun control/safety and the gun has gone off and injured or killed a student.

Arming teachers isn’t the answer. Having metal detectors in the school and extra security isn’t doing enough. 

And that’s just school shootings.

Below you’ll find a list of some of the deadliest mass shootings in America from 2000 to present day along with how many deaths and what year. If this information doesn’t make you want to do something about the gun laws (or lack thereof) in America, then you need to rethink your priorities.

Las Vegas Shooting, 2017, 59 dead.

Orlando Nightclub Shooting, 2016, 50 dead.

Virginia Tech Shooting, 2007, 33 dead.

Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, 2012, 28 dead.

Sutherland Springs Church Shooting, 2017, 27 dead.

Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting, 2018, 17 dead.

San Bernardino Attack, 2015, 16 dead.

Binghamton shootings, 2009, 14 dead.

And just this Friday, May 18th, the Santa Fe High School shooting, 2018, 10 dead.

These are people. People with families and lives and dreams and goals. And now they’re dead. This is an issue that needs to be dealt with. 

More than 1,500 people in America have been killed due to mass shootings since the 1990s.

On March 24th 2018, there was March For Our Lives in Washington, D.C.

Since then there have been more than five school shootings with injuries and fatalities and it hasn’t even been two months.

We need gun control in America.

We need to ban assault weapons in America.

Since I’ve been coming across more and more people trying to tell me that ‘Black lives matter’ is racist, I’ve decided to educate people.

When I say ‘Black Lives Matter’ I am in no way saying ‘Other lives don’t matter’ or ‘Black lives matter most’.

Black Lives Matter is a movement that was started to help intervene and put a stop to violence and brutality against black people, whether that’s by the state or vigilantes. 

It’s sad that we need this movement and that it isn’t already known that Black lives matter. 

The biggest thing I hear is ‘all lives matter’. 

When you say ‘all lives matter’ you’re saying a tree and a polar bear and a rat and an elephant’s lives matter just as much as you’re saying that White, Black, East Asian, South Asian, First Nations and all other human lives matter. 

Yes, all lives matter, but right now we need to focus on the black ones.

Black people have been treated wrong throughout history and it hasn’t stopped. 

Which is why we need the Black Lives Matter Movement. We need to put the stories of those men and women and children who are murdered and tortured for the colour of their skin in the media. We need everyone in the world to understand that black people are still people. 

It was established a long time ago that white lives matter. But only recently have black people been really seen as people. And even now not everyone sees us as people which is so messed up. 

We need this movement so that we can have barbecues and not get arrested. So that our children won’t be afraid to go to school because they’re getting beat up 'cause they’re black. So that we can have the same opportunities as white people. So that we can be treated equally. 

We deserve to be treated equally. 

It needs to be established that Black Lives Matter.

Hair is an important and very distinctive feature of black people and black culture. It’s very different than white hair. It needs to be maintained in different ways. Braids, locks, cornrows. All are ways of keeping black, textured hair well-kept and healthy. 

It is okay to be curious about black hair. It's okay to be curious about white hair. It is okay to ask questions politely, backing off if the person in question feels uncomfortable.

It is not okay to touch their hair without their permission. It is not okay to ask for permission then touch their hair without waiting for an answer. It is not okay to touch their hair if they say they don’t want you to.

It is degrading and dehumanizing.

When I’ve spoken to other members of the black (and even white) community about getting their hair touched, they say it’s as if they were a dog, getting pet by someone of higher power. 

When you pet our hair without our permission you are treating us like dogs.

White hair is beautiful, as is black hair. However white hair has been normalized. Pin-straight hair is what’s society deems ‘normal’ and anything else (Curly, Poofy, Thick, Frizzy) is different and judged harshly.

(Please note that this isn't me saying 'go touch white people hair'. Don't touch anybody without their consent, okay?)

And then to compare black textured hair to an animal is even more dehumanizing. 

Do not ever tell me my hair is strange, weird, different, exotic, unique. Don’t tell me it’s softer than you thought it would be. Don’t tell me about your hair care routine and compare it to mine. Don’t compare your hair to mine.

My hair is one of my defining features. Do not take it and make it your own.

My hair is an important part of my culture. Do not take that from me. 

My hair is mine, it is not yours to touch.

Look all you want, ask about it even. 

I’m here to educate because I feel that not enough people actually know what cultural appropriation is.

The definition of cultural appropriation according to Cambridge Dictionary is ‘the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture’. 

So, when white people have cornrows, get box braids, wear grills, wear headwraps, or anything else that is an aspect of predominantly black culture, it can be considered appropriation. 

Because a lot of white people are undereducated on racial issues that happened in the past and racial issues that are still happening in 2018, they are appropriating culture.

Especially celebrities. When white celebrities who know nothing of (or simply ignore) the racial issues going on (Lynching, Police Brutality, calling the cops for no reason etc.) it is them advertising that it’s okay to appropriate culture. It’s them implying that ‘it’s okay to take this from these people without caring about where it came from or what’s going on with them’.

When I see a white celebrity wearing a something that is very distinctly from black culture, I make sure to do my research.

9 out of 10 times said white celeb is uneducated on the importance and significance of the part of the culture that they’re appropriating. 

If a white rapper wants to use hip-hop to express themselves and they want to do their hair in the more traditionally ‘hip-hop’ ways, then fine. As long as they do their research and understand the importance to the culture that they are taking it from. If a white celebrity is wearing a hair-wrap (I use this because I am familiar with the importance of it in specifically Jamaican {but also African} culture) but says nothing about the lynching, racism, brutality, and inequality that is going on then they are both ignorant and appropriating culture.

And when white people do get their hair done in ways that are unique to black culture, then have the audacity to make snarky, racist remarks about looking ‘black’, ‘like a n*gger’, ‘dirty’, ‘exotic’, ‘gangster,’ or ‘like a hood rat’ (all things I have heard firsthand), it amplifies the appropriation, racism, and ignorance of that person.

So long as white people stay ignorant to the importance of culture (one of the few things we have left), they will be appropriators. They will be taking yet another thing from us without caring about the impact it has.