By Taylor Crumpton

Last week, The Optimist’s Editorial Board released an editorial piece entitled “War on Police Will Not Solve Anything”.

The author did an excellent job of combining the nationalistic feelings inspired by September 11 with the recent loss of an Abilene Police Department officer, crafting an editorial piece that displayed the way white Americans think about the innocent black lives lost and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Black Lives Matter movement is about police accountability and the removal of the systemic barriers that enable and condone its racial practices. The main issue is a lack of accountability for various actions against the African American community. Oscar Grant, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Trayvon Martin are just a few of the innocent black lives that were taken because of the lack of accountability that exists within our current police system, leaving the black community to mourn over the injustices committed in the deaths of our brothers and sisters nationwide.

The loss of innocent lives is the exigence behind the Black Lives Matter movement, not the murders of police officers. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X were brothers in the fight for racial equality, a right that is still being fought for in our nation today.

I agree with you that Martin Luther King Jr. is more prominent and well known in the American culture today due to his peaceful and non­violent campaign for racial equality. His philosophies align more with the watered down history the American education system provides about the civil rights movement, while Malcolm X is not discussed in school due to his “radicalism”.

Malcolm X is one of the most influential leaders in African American history due to his intelligence, activism, and his “pro­black” agenda. After his separation from the Nation of Islam and pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm X returned with a different philosophy, one of integration and working with non­African Americans to achieve mutual goals.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are not that different when you look at their philosophies and their goals for the African American community. Optimist, I do agree with you that violence will not solve any of these problems. Violence should never be the solution between children of God, and it’s disappointing that violence was used to draw attention to these injustices.

Racial discrimination, police brutality, and the struggles our nation faces today will only be solved through unity, mutual understanding, respect, and communication between the two communities. If these goals are not reached, we are doomed to fail.