Black Lives Matter to White People

On June 17, 1966, Martin Luther King gave a speech at Zion Church in Los Angeles. In it, he rejected the calls of the majority white society that black people should settle down. Dr. King clearly expressed why in about 300 words.

We don’t need to utter but three words to tell this nation what we are talking about. They aren’t big words. You don’t need to have a great vocabulary to utter them. You don’t need to have a philosophical bent to grasp them. They’re three little words. But we want to let the world know that these words describe what we mean and what we are determined to do about racial injustice.

One, is the word ALL. We don’t want SOME of our rights. We don’t want a few token handouts here and there. We want ALL of our rights!

Another word is HERE. There are some people who say that we need to go back to Africa. And there are some others who tell negroes in the South to leave the South — “You can’t be free so get out!” But down in Alabama and Mississippi and Georgia and South Carolina, we are saying something else now — “We want ALL of our rights. And we want all of our rights HERE in Alabama and Mississippi and South Carolina.

And then there is a third word. It is the word NOW. We’re not willing to wait a hundred years for our rights. We’re not willing to wait fifty years for what is ours on the basis of the Constitution of this United States and the authority of God himself. No, we are not willing to wait another 25 years for our rights. We can hear voices telling us to slow up. We can hear voices telling us to cool off. I only answer… that we have cooled off too long and if we keep cooling off, we’ll end up in a deep freeze.

We must go on and say… We want ALL of our rights. We want them HERE. And we want all of them not next year. Not next week. But we want them NOW. At this hour.

TIME MACHINE

Don’t we see that the people campaigning for justice in Black Lives Matter are the children and grandchildren of MLK’s ideas? Too many white people disrespect them! If you’re a white person who dislikes the Black Lives Matter movement, I can say with some confidence that if we traveled back in time to the 1960s, you, too, probably would have disliked, loathed, or even hated Dr. King while he was living.

These black men and women aren’t doing anything different than he did. You are WRONG to oppose the Black Lives Matter movement. When white people can’t explain their opposition to Black Lives Matter (hint: disliking traffic disruptions isn’t a good reason!), then you open yourselves up to the charge of being called racist — that is, not caring about or actively opposing a whole group of people. It is the oppressed who get to decide what form their protests take, not those in power.

It’s ironic that so often the same people rabid for protection of the Second Amendment (bearing arms) are so forcefully opposed to the part of the First Amendment that protects “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” — the very Amendment the Black Lives Matter movement exercises. So whites will fight to the death for the Second Amendment and be highly annoyed — downright hostile — toward expressions of the First.

WHITE AND BLACK

Macklemore’s new song, White Privilege II, recounts the past two years of his life — hearing fans come up and tell him how much they love his brand of hip-hop. He acknowledges his success is because he’s borrowed from black people. He laments, “We take all we want from black culture, but will we show up for black lives?”

By and large, the answer is no. Instead, the white community trots out the absolutely insulting anti-campaign “All Lives Matter.” No, white folk. It doesn’t work that way. It’s more like this…

Black Lives Matter — to use an analogy — is like if there was a subdivision and a house was on fire. The fire department wouldn’t show up and start putting water on ALL the houses because all houses matter. They would show up and they would turn their water on the house that was burning because that’s the house that needs help the most.

The history is undeniable and undisputed. Our American forefathers oppressed black people. Oppressed isn’t even a strong enough word for what they did. And, in general, black people find themselves living in the ghettoes of the United States — with little opportunity — because of our forefathers. Even a five-year old child, if they were told the situation would say, “That’s not fair!”

This country — to its credit — has changed over time. But a sports team doesn’t keep itself content by saying, “Well, we made it to the playoffs. Great job, team! Mission accomplished.” NO!! That is the time when they double down! They train harder, find better players, make better plays. The goal is a championship. They don’t want it in five years or ten years. They want it NOW! Because the players are getting older. So, too, the situation with Black Lives Matter.

We cannot let advances — no matter how significant (i.e. a black President) — lull us into a sense that things are as they should be. They’re not. Dr. King said it — ALL RIGHTS. RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW.

WHY BLACK LIVES MATTER

We’re better as a human race when ALL people are able to become everything God intended them to be. Most Black people are prevented from becoming even a fraction of what God intended. That should piss us off. As white people, we can be excused for being ignorant. But when we gain knowledge of the situation and dismiss it by saying, “They have schools!” or “Such and such a person made it out,” then we show we’re not only ignorant, but dumb.

First, inner-city schools are NOT the same as ours. Study it. If a white person thinks these schools are adequate, just go visit one. The teachers, the building facilities, the learning materials, the surrounding social and physical environments — this isn’t a place designed for kids to succeed. And if we, as white people, believe it is, we should send our own kids there.

“It’s the tax code!” a stubborn person will say. “Their property values are lower! So they can’t raise as much money for their schools as the suburbs.” Then let’s fix that! “But that’s COMMUNISM!” comes the reply. No, it’s not. It’s called justice.

Second, when we point at some one-off example of a person escaping poverty as proof that city schools are ok, we forget basic statistics. The bell curve shows us that there will always be a tiny group of outliers on either side of the bell. In any given place, there will be billionaires on one extreme of the bell and there will be serial killers on the other.

I went to a nice high school and there were a couple kids who flunked out because they were druggies. That doesn’t mean my high school would be called a place for at-risk kids. Quite the opposite. The exceptions highlight the overall picture of greatness. In a similar way, inner-city success stories don’t indicate environments of success. They highlight the overall dismal conditions from which those people emerge.

CRITICISM

The Black Lives Matter movement is not infallible. Yes, they have made and will make mistakes. But the overwhelming push of their message is correct and absolutely necessary. These people are pioneers! As we sit on our couches watching Netflix, they’re out trying to make a better world. Our critiques should be quite sparse and muted. Their courage should make us put our hands over our mouths. One thing we can know for sure is that Dr. King would not have accepted inaction. Perhaps he would have led them differently. But he’s not here anymore and they’re doing a great job!

THE CLUELESS WHITE GUY

I still don’t understand much about race. I don’t understand the Black experience. That’s impossible because I’m white. But I don’t need to fully understand. Their testimony of great struggle and frustration is all I need to hear.

It’s the epitome of hypocrisy for white people to worship Jesus on Sunday and ignore the type of people he was friends with come Monday. If Jesus had been born in America today, he wouldn’t be spending most of his time at the yacht clubs. He wouldn’t spend the bulk of his hours in the comfortable middle class suburbs so famous for castigating black people. He’d be in the bowling alleys and the ghettoes. Those are his people! But they’re not ours and that’s scary for the judgment day that’s soon visiting us all.

BLACK RESURRECTION

I don’t want Donald Trump to “Make America Great Again.” His methods are exclusionary and dull. I want America to become great by affording ALL of its citizens maximum chances to win at life. The more of us who are winning, the better it is for everyone! Just look at the TWO arenas where white people have allowed black people full access — sports and entertainment. And they DOMINATE us at both. Black people are massive winners when given the chance to be. The drug culture of the inner city isn’t something ANY human being would choose. It’s about the only thing they’re left with. And then white people hate them for it. How brutal!

Black people have great riches to offer this country. They have great riches to offer you and me personally. At this point, I’ll throw the BLM opposition a bone. Black Lives Matter because All Lives Matter but we haven’t acted like All Lives Matter for many decades, have we?

I pray every day for the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement — that they would be given the wisdom and courage to speak the right words and act the right actions unflinchingly. Dr. King didn’t blink and he paid the price for it. But the improved life of our fellow humans will always be worth the death of ourselves as individuals. Jesus told us there is NO GREATER LOVE than to lay down your life for your brothers. If that’s true (which it is!), then how come most of us white people (myself included!!) won’t even lift a finger to help black people?

WHITE RISING FOR BLACK LIVES

We’re living in special times, my brothers and sisters. Search your souls. Figure out how to plug in to the black community and be a part of what they’re doing. It’s the right thing to do. As our fellow brothers and sisters, they deserve all their rights right here and right now.

Rally your courage and focus to spend 4–5 hours reading articles. Understand the situation from a black perspective. And then get in touch with a local chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement. Ask them how they want white people to support them. After that, it’s impossible to know what will happen. But it must be better than what we currently have here in the United States.

If enough of us care, the pictures of white and black people walking together will overwhelm our Nation. It is the few vocal white people chanting “All Lives Matter” who make us all look like bozos. Most of us just don’t have the courage to link arms with black people — even though we want to in our hearts.

“We take all we want from black culture, but will we show up for black lives?”

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