When the Dallas shooting occurred I crossed my fingers and held my breath hoping that the suspect was not black, even though I knew one man’s individual act does not speak for the whole of a people. This is the burden that minorities carry on a daily basis, literally hoping that the actions of one does not convict the entire group.
When reports of the shooting in Baton Rouge started to trickle out today, that same fear returned and I thought to myself here we go again. A short time later a suspect was identified as Gavin Long of Kansas City, Missouri but the race of the suspect had not been confirmed yet.
Well a few racists individuals tried to capitalize on all of the paranoia surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and created a fake Gavin Long Facebook profile, using the photo of a black man they searched for on Google.
Actions like these are despicable and dangerous for the young man pictured in the photo, and serves no other purpose but to discredit a movement that is largely misunderstood by white America. Black Lives Matter echoes the same calls for equality and justice that were prominent during the Civil Rights Movement, and not surprisingly it is facing the same kind of backlash and discrediting that many Civil Rights pioneers faced in the 1960’s.
As a logical person, I believe that we don’t have to choose a side when it comes to wanting equality in policing for all citizens and safety for cops. There is also a question of equity in media coverage when it comes to mass shootings, as murderers like Dylan Roof are painted as mentally unstable or an isolated case, while the deplorable actions of Micah Johnson are tied to Black Lives Matter protesters and denounced by politicians.
This is the level of equity that minorities are seeking as citizens of the United States, and that fact that I have to cross my fingers with each shooting, downgrades the level of freedom that I should enjoy as a citizen. The Gavin Long Facebook profile was caught as a fake fairly quickly, but with the way information travels in this age, the damage done may already be irreversible.
Flip the Page to See The Fake Facebook Profile.