It’s been four years since the Black Lives Matter movement began. Despite this, there are still people out there with a misconception of what Black Lives Matter stands for.

Some people believe Black Lives Matter exists for the mere purpose of creating a war against the police of this nation. This became evident when a group of people poached the Black Lives Matter name and created Blue Lives Matter (also known as Police Lives Matter).

Although the Black Lives Matter movement was formed after the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, the movement’s purpose was not solely to have Zimmerman arrested.

The movement did and does not aim to exclusively punish anyone associated with police security. Nor is it meant to diminish the value of anyone who is not African-American. The focus was never to enact benefits for someone based purely on their race.

In fact, the only goal Black Lives Matter has had since its foundation is to have all black lives respected and regarded as equal to everybody else, including white people, regardless of their age, gender, sexuality or nationality.

According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 1 million of the 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States are African American. This has nothing to do with African Americans being more prone to committing crimes as is often assumed.

This is just one example as to why Black Lives Matter promotes worldwide change of ideologies on the notion that many people have towards African Americans: people who are inherently violent and prone to crime. However, notions of crime are not the only thing Black Lives Matter promotes.

In several parts of the world, black culture is considered cool and mainstream. All over the world, celebrities and models style and modify their hair, clothing and even bodies to resemble that of African Americans and other people of color.

Music initially created to speak out about the unjust politics that has affected African American communities, such as hip-hop, blues, jazz, etc. have now been popularized by not just whites worldwide, but by many other races.

This is not inherently bad, but there has been a lack of acknowledgement and appreciation for the people who initially created certain fashions and music genres in order to differentiate themselves from their oppressors. There has also been unjust treatments of African Americans who style their hair in traditional African ways, whilst a white person is praised for their sense of style.

While Black Lives Matter stands to protect African Americans from unwarranted violence and injustice, they do not seek to promote hatred toward other groups of people in order to accomplish that. The movement seeks to promote a change in the way others view the black community and how the black community views itself.

Black Lives Matter is a movement that advocates for African Americans to be respected, acknowledged and honored worldwide.