Over the past week, the internet has blown up with stories and instances of violence and heartlessness for the sake of revenge. These instances have provoked a lot of emotions from a lot of different groups of people, including me. The first being the obvious fact that all lives matter, including those of the police officers that have been the primary victims of hate more recently. Haven’t we learned as a civilization yet that treating hate with more hate doesn’t create a solution? It only fuels the fire more until it burns brighter and with more ferocity than ever before. For every person that has been the victim of police violence in the past year, it seems that there has been double the retaliation. And for what? More families reserving funeral homes, more children without fathers or mothers, more jails being filled and more heartbreak. Why are we, as a society, okay with this?
But what infuriates me even more than any of that is the fact that this is all being done under the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.
I’m gonna get right to the point here. It goes against every fiber of my being to say that phrase aloud or to use it in a hashtag on social media.
Obviously, black lives matter. That shouldn't have to be stated. But just because your skin is black does not mean that your life matters any more than if you had white skin, or yellow, or blue, or purple. That’s just a fact. And vice versa as well. Black lives matter the same way that toddler lives matter, and hockey player’s lives matter, and blonde lives matter, and short lives matter. The very same way that an unborn child’s life matters, and someone on life support’s life matters, and those with extra chromosome’s lives matter. All. Lives. Matter. Tall, short, skinny, overweight, athletic, lazy, black, white, gay, straight, funny, shy, smart, mute.
Why won't I wont say #BlackLivesMatter?
Because all lives matter..
Our worth is not dependent upon what we look like, how we dress, or what we do for a living. You know what is dependent on those things? Hate.
The problem is not us. The problem is what society is telling us. We are constantly being confronted with the newest way to lose weight and become richer, in order to make us more likeable. But none of those things make us any more valuable. Why are we letting our intrinsic value be defined by hate? We matter because we exist. Nothing more and nothing less. I refuse to believe that, in the land of free, society has the power to tell me what about me makes me matter more than someone else. If you just stop to think about that statement for a second, it really does sound outrageous. We are important because we have a soul and we contribute to a society that would not be the same if we did not exist. Our dignity is in our existence. And in that, we are all equals.
I won't say #BlackLivesMatter.
Anytime we define someone by what sets them apart from the rest of humanity, we are creating a divide. Black, white, gay, straight, transvestite. We as a humanity are so broken that we’ve compartmentalized ourselves into little groups that do nothing but create chaos and misunderstanding. All of these boxes that we are putting ourselves in to "create order" and "avoid offending anyone" are separating us more and more from our roots and from our humanity. We have completely lost touch of who we are and what brings us together as a community of people.
We are all a certain type of mammal.
We are composed of cells, skin, and bones.
We all have a muscle shaped like a fist in our chest that keeps us alive.
That same muscle gives us the ability to go beyond ourselves and love others.
We all have free will to choose our own actions. But they don't define us.
Somehow, in this ordered chaos we call life, we live in harmony. Different but together.
I won't say #BlackLivesMatter because I don't believe in a world that emphasizes our differences and separating ourselves more and more from each other.
Our life matters simply because it is. So make it count.
