According to Alicia Garza, the co-founder of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, she launched the movement not only to respond to racism but also to challenge and change our status quo. It began after the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. His killer, George Zimmerman, faced no repercussions for taking his life. According to their website, blacklivesmatter.com, "Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ contributions to this society, our humanity and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression."
The movement itself was born as a response to systematic racism, oppression and murder. The hashtag spread through social media as a way for the black community to create solidarity, validate their pain and grieve. Before seconds could pass, someone decided to create the hashtag #AllLivesMatter. Now, we all agree that all lives do in fact matter. That is something we know to be true. When someone says #BlackLivesMatter, they are not proclaiming that black lives are the only ones that matter, nor are they saying that they matter more. While most of us get that, here are some really simple examples for those who don't:
If your first response to a black man being murdered by police is to tweet that all lives matter, you need to step back and reevaluate. When I say that I am Pro-Black I do not mean that I am Anti-White. If you believe those to be mutually exclusive, please re-examine your perspective. The entire Black Lives Matter movement exists because they are the ones being slaughtered and murdered every day by police.
You can sit behind a screen and try to tell us that all lives matter, but the truth is they don't. Not to our justice system. If all lives mattered equally, black individuals wouldn't be killed en mass by police officers each week without consequence. Black parents wouldn't have to have conversations like this with their children.
Non black individuals, we will never understand this fear. We will never understand how badly our society has failed black americans. If you truly believe that all lives matter, you do not need a hashtag for it. We already have one and it's #BlackLivesMatter. Every time someone tweets that #AllLivesMatter, all you are doing is silencing the pain and oppression of the group that truly needs to be heard. No matter who you are, you are not entitled to tell someone how to grieve.
You do not get to tell the group that is being affected what their movement should be, nor the goals of the movement. You do not get to be angry because of someone else's anger. Instead of speaking over their community, share their stories and narratives. Do not assume you know the pain of a community that you are not a part of. Do not assume that you can fully understand a situation that doesn't touch you because of your race. Do not let yourself be so blinded by privilege just because you have it.
So my question to you, when you sit behind a computer screen and watch a video of a black man being executed and tell yourself that all lives matter, who are you trying to fool?
His widow does not believe you.
His fatherless children do not believe you.
His friends do not believe you.
Our legislators clearly do not believe you.
It should not be controversial for a group to say that they have the right to exist. When someone says that black lives matter and you reply that all lives matter, all you are doing is destroying narratives, invalidating pain and dismissing an entire community. If you actually want to live in a world where all lives matter, stop silencing those whose lives are being treated as though they don't. When you silence someone, you take away their voice, their power, their identity and in this case, their life. When you choose to ignore or speak over the #BlackLivesMatter movement, it is no longer a matter of opinion. Your opinion means nothing next to a body count.
