#BlackLivesMatter to me, and they should matter to you, too.

The United States of America, once praised for being a melting pot of different cultures and traditions, once welcoming to the world's poor and oppressed, has lost its sympathy and its understanding. The attitudes towards diversity have turned from curious and appreciative back to hatred and intolerance.

When unarmed children are gunned down in the streets by law enforcement officials, the country divides and erupts in argument about why or why not the child deserved to be murdered.

The Black Lives Matter movement, a response to institutional racism, has emerged as an attempt to confront these issues, and its members refer to themselves as liberators. The movement has suffered extensive criticism, and sparked the rise of other movements, such as Blue Lives Matter, created as a countermovement based on keeping law enforcement officials safe.

Even if its intentions were good and pure, any countermovement against Black Lives Matter must be considered racist. Any attempt to justify the killing of an unarmed black person, especially a minor, is inherently racist.

America must stand together, united, and make an effort to end institutionalized racism and to purge their minds of the generalizations which cause innocent lives to be taken prematurely. We must embrace what is different, and learn from it, rather than fear it and oppress it.

Change is necessary, and we must work together to achieve it.