I have lost count of all the people who have said to me on social media that “All Lives Matter.” And they are right. All lives do matter, and that is why black lives matter. The phrase “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” mean the same thing. I often get asked the same question when explaining this to these people. The question I am often asked is why can’t we say white lives matter then? Well that is simple. You wouldn't need to say white lives matters because these things aren't disproportionately happening to you. If it was, then you could say white lives matter to the world, because clearly the country doesn’t agree if it continues to happen. But since this isn't disproportionately happening to people of your denomination there wouldn't be a need for a “White Lives Matter” phrase. But when you're against the phrase "Black Lives Matter” then you're expressing that you don't like that black people think their lives matter. It's the only way to explain why some of you vehemently dislike the term. Your telling everyone in the whole world, that you at the very least have a negative unconscious bias against black people. You can be married to a black person. You can even be a black person, and still have this unconscious bias. Having black friends etc. changes nothing. We can still see the racism in your heart. Whether or not you can see it in yourself.

You can prove and explain something in a million different ways from a million different angles and there will always be people who deny the logic. As if the information they were given hurts them. Maybe it does. Maybe it hurts to have your privilege displayed out before you. Maybe it hurts them to know how wrong they have been their whole lives. Maybe that hurt comes from shame. Shame they cannot handle. But the facts are the facts. Black Americans are disproportionately targeted, arrested and abused by the police unfairly. A black teen is seven times more likely than a white teen to be killed by a police officer. There is data that proves racial bias from labor markets to online retail markets, so why would race only not play a factor in the way blacks are policed? No honest person can believe that it doesn’t. Not with all the data known to at least the educated public. But don’t take my word for it, here are the facts. The F.BI.’s Supplementary Homicide Report, 31.8 percent of people shot by the police today are African-American, a proportion more than two and a half times the 13.2 percent of African-Americans in the general population. While this data may be imperfect, other sources from individual cities, and states, like California and New York City, show very similar patterns. Blacks are killed by the police more per capita than white people. There is your reason for saying “Black lives matter.”

Racism is a main component in the characteristics of our country. It’s the spear head in our social system, government, and even our foreign policy. But what can be more dishonorable than to deny your own countryman a voice? Black Americans and those who support their cause have every right to be upset. The governor of Texas Greg Abbott spoke to Fox News on July 8, “All protestors last night, they ran the other way expecting the men and women in blue to turn around and protect them, what hypocrites!” The shooting in Dallas was a mortifying and sad thing. But the shooter had nothing to do with the BLM movement. To call the peaceful protestors hypocrites, and to make a claim that suggest that they shouldn’t be protesting is frankly un-American, as it a constitutional right to do so. A right that should be protected by those elected to do so. This seems to be a concept lost on Greg Abbott. Perhaps this is because black lives in fact don’t matter so much to him.

All people have a right to justice. A right that is so ingrained into our America souls, that we cannot help but fight for it, and fight for it in the manner that we believe is justified. Is this not the American way? BLM is choosing to fight this huge historical problem by peacefully marching and chanting, pray that it stays that way.