That anger you’re feeling? The anger because you feel like your people, your officers, are being targeted and undervalued, diminished to a stereotype? The anger that made you start a hashtag because you felt like Blue Lives weren’t included in All Lives because the Blue ones were the ones being targeted, not All of them? You know, that anger? That’s how black people feel, too.
There was never a question that all lives matter, but when black people continue dying, you have to wonder if there’s an asterisk next to that All. And that’s how you feel about officers, too. But what you fail to realize when you start a hashtag to counter #BlackLivesMatter, is that even when officers are being targeted, they are still the ones in positions of power. The reason #BlackLivesMatter is a "thing" is because the United States was created on the slave trade (which wasn't abolished until three decades after the founding of the U.S.) and a system of racism targeted at black people that put white people in a position of power. The Civil Rights movement only ended in the sixties. There are still people alive who remember a time when black people didn’t have rights, so that system and that racism has not completely faded away. White people should know not to take away from the issues still facing black people.
If I tell you that I love pasta, are you going to tell me that that’s insensitive to pizza lovers? That #AllFoodMatters? No, because you’re a person capable of rational thinking and empathy and can recognize that me showing my love for one food does not negate the awesomeness of another. So when someone tells you that Black Lives Matter, do not tell them that it’s insensitive to white people, that #AllLivesMatter. We know all lives matter, no one is saying they don't. That’s why murder is a crime and we have a judicial system in place to punish those who decide it's up to them which lives matter. But right now black people are being murdered and no one is being punished for it.
A black person was murdered and the gun used to do it was sold on eBay by the murderer. Cops are shot and it’s a national outrage and you’re so upset by cops being targeted that you get angry and you start a hashtag. Your anger is valid and justified. But don’t let that invalidate the anger of others. Don’t let that blind you to the suffering of others. Cops are shot and their shooter was killed. Black people are shot and their shooters are put on paid leave. #BlueLivesMatter is not you saying the lives of doctors or cashiers or performers don’t also matter. So why do you think that #BlackLivesMatter means that white lives or cops’ lives don’t matter? Take stock of yourself. Take stock of what is favoring you and harming others. Take stock of why you want to devalue the Black Lives Matter movement, but feel just fine saying that Blue Lives Matter. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll realize that Blue Lives are already included in All* Lives.
*but Black Lives aren’t.
And that’s the problem.
