This past week, I was blessed with the opportunity to meet an activist by the name of Michelle Higgins. While I could go on and on about the plethora of things I learned from her, I want to focus on the Black Lives Matter movement. I’ve been meaning to write about this topic, and after meeting her I knew that I not only wanted to write about it, but I needed to.
Some people take issue with the Black Lives Matter movement because they feel it is discriminatory and devalues the lives of Whites. This horrible misconception has stolen the spotlight from the real issue being fought against. The title Black Lives Matter does not imply that other lives don’t, but that Black lives are being ripped away from this Earth and ignored. When you have children, such as Tamir Rice, being killed, and cops are not being prosecuted – clearly something is wrong with the system. When you have young men, like Michael Brown, being shot down when they are not armed and the police’s actions are being justified – something needs to change.
It’s not that all lives don’t matter, but Black lives are not being respected. The Black community is suffering huge losses due to police brutality that goes unpunished. If I need to give only one reason as to why the movement is not called All Lives Matter, it’s because in the U.S., they don’t, or at least they don’t matter equally. The life of a Muslim, an African American or a Hispanic does not have the same value as a White life. The lives of these different ethnic groups are not valued equally either. As harsh as it may sound, Tamir Rice's case would have been handled differently had he been a White boy.
Another difficult aspect that people misunderstand about the Movement, Higgins said, has to do with violence and the way police react to Black protestors. Simple “Black anger” leads to police confronting unarmed protestors with guns, tear gas and tanks. The reaction the protestors receive leaves no room for conversation because their voices are being threatened with the silence that rests at the barrel of a gun. Clearly, this abuse of authority and power that goes uncontrolled proves that not all lives matter because police are ready to destroy Black lives. Their reaction comes from the implicit bias that Black anger = violence.
Black Lives Matter needs its name because it needs to draw attention to the truth. For a long time, we have been trying to cover up the reality of the situation, but simply not talking about it doesn’t make it any less real. Black Lives Matter needs its name because we like to pretend that there is equality in the U.S. because the Civil Rights Movement succeeded and we have a Black president. Black Lives Matter needs its name because until the entire police force understands that police brutality is a real issue, Black lives will continue to be ended with no consequences and justice for victims and families. So the next time the name Black Lives Matter comes up, I hope you can realize that we will never be able to say that #AllLivesMatter, when it is apparent that they don’t.
