The Lie of All Lives Matter
There are some out there who are pained by the expression Black Lives Matter and retort with All Lives Matter. They deface Black Lives Matter murals, remove posters because they don’t believe All Lives Matter. The minute you can’t support that Black Lives Matter, you’ve negated every argument possible against all lives mattering. That’s the only way for me to see that. If “All Lives Matter” was true, then all lives would actually matter and you’d give no excuses for the on-street executions of Black People and have no qualms with agreeing that Black Lives Matter and that it’s the problem we must face now.
If all lives really mattered, you’d defend our living, oxygen-breathing lives with the force you defend the lives of the unborn. The unfortunate truth is that all lives don’t really matter. They can’t really matter until Black Lives (also) Matter. At a minimum, you wouldn’t make a fool of yourself by repeating the lie of ALM to make yourself feel better while setting yourself up with a seat in the hell of your own creation. You’d take some time to self-reflect to figure out why saying Black Lives Matter is so difficult.
Racism Isn’t Long Ago
We’re not that far out of segregation and the effects of institutionalized racism and anti-blackness backed by laws impacts us. It’s not that far back in history. We don’t want it to be true, but it does. My mother lived in a segregated society. Born in 1952 in the south, she was 12 to 16 when the Civil Rights Act (1964), Voting Rights Act (1965) and Fair Housing Act (1968) were passed. That’s the woman who raised me and graduated from a segregated high school in 1970. When segregation ended the white people in her town opened a private school so segregation could continue. Many private schools were opened in the 50s and 60s as a way to continue segregationist practices.
Her white counterparts in age raised my white counterparts — think of what ideologies and racial biases were passed down in just this one generation to the people who are now in the prime of their lives and careers. It should be noted that segregation and Jim Crow laws didn’t just impact the South. Northerners also owned slaves.
Implicit Biases and Some Not-So Implicit
Understand, we’re automatically seen as a threat because of the color of our skin. We’re stopped more regularly not because we do more stuff, but because our skin color is seen negatively. In your own sphere of influence you can begin changing the perceptions. Challenging them. Making sure people see Black and Brown people in everyday situations, not just when they go out.
So, What Now?
This is a problem. A serious problem that will test our moral character and humanity as a nation and a world. I challenge you, if you are asking yourself where you fall, to face yourself and then choose positive action to change this system — from the places you live, work, play, pray, and are educated. I don’t believe any one person must do all things to fix this disease in our society, but you can do something.
Ask yourself where in your life you can personally have an impact to increase awareness, understanding, empathy, diversity, and inclusion so that when we meet in the streets we’re given the same understanding and benefit of the doubt. So that when we’re sitting in a park, you don’t call the cops out of suspicion. So that when we’re sitting in a car you don’t assume it’s stolen. So that when we’re walking or jogging you don’t think we’re in the wrong neighborhood and must be doing something wrong. See, it’s the implicit biases created over centuries that we’re battling. The ones that make a cop more trigger happy when in the presence of our Black bodies.
It is not the job of Black people to change racial biases, centuries of programming, and the written and unwritten systems that have resulted in the continuing decimation of our communities and our lives. It’s your job to listen, reflect, and act. You’re going to have to get uncomfortable before you can feel comfortable again. We’ve never felt comfortable. You have to change how you operate and think. Just know that we will not sit and wait quietly and passively while you get yourselves together. We will continue to demand justice, reform, and equity.
Resources:
Anti-Racism: Skills for the Workplace Now
