Everyone has an opinion, and everyone is hell-bent on sharing it. It is no longer possible to share a post on Facebook regarding politics or race without getting a couple angry face emoji. There is no doubt you will get a comment or two telling you why what you shared is wrong.
Here’s why I have a problem with that.
Recently, I shared a post that simply read #BlackLivesMatter. Almost immediately, I received a comment saying #AllLivesMatter, and someone else commented to tell me all the reasons we didn’t need to worry about black lives.
Last month, I was very excited to go to the Chicago Pride parade with my mom. It seemed like such a fun and open-minded experience, and I couldn’t wait to see all of the amazing support. We ended up being busy the day of the parade, but I noticed a trending hashtag on Twitter about #HeterosexualPride. I saw tons of Twitter users complaining that if the LGBTQ community had a parade, the straight men and women should have one too.
Since going away to college, I have become very interested and supportive of the feminism movement. I believe women deserve everything a man deserves, and it is ridiculous that anyone questions that in my mind. Yet I have seen another uprising in “meninism.” Men who think feminism is about tearing down men and empowering women over men have come to the conclusion that they should tear the feminists down in return.
None of these movements would exist if people were able to realize that minorities need our help and support. The people posting #AllLivesMatter, #HeterosexualPride, and about meninism have decided that they don’t actually care about black lives, LGBTQ pride, or women’s rights and are purely out to make sure things never change.
No one decided "all lives mattered" until we started talking about why black lives matter. Of course all lives matter, but with all of the police brutality and systemic racism going on in this country, it’s time we focused on the black lives. This still doesn’t mean that police deserve to die. It is 100 percent possible to believe both black and police lives are equally valuable. The shooting in Dallas did not deliver justice to Philando Castile or any other innocent life taken.
No one decided we needed #HeterosexualPride until LGBTQ pride was a huge deal. Every month is heterosexual pride month! The LGBTQ community has worked so hard to get to where they are in society. They have had to overcome so much in their lives and in this world to even have a parade, while we’ve been able to hold hands in public, talk about our attractions without worry and get married for as long as we’ve been a country. We do not need a heterosexual pride month.
No one decided we needed meninism until feminism really caught its stride. Once we started making a little progress for women, meninism materialized to put us back in our place. I won’t say that all meninists hate women and aren’t just confused what feminism is, but they still bring us down all the same. Feminism is about empowering women and creating strong women – not hating men and tearing them to shreds.
It seems sad to me that the privileged groups in our country feel so strongly about their position that they feel they can’t help out the minorities and women. Not wanting to be apart of a social movement is one thing, but making groups of their own that are anti-movement is outrageous. If we could all just come together with support and kindness, the world would be a better place.
