#BlackLivesMatter Isn’t Reconciliation. It’s Just Plain Old Racism.

Everywhere you turn there is outrage against racism, and rightly so. From #BlackLivesMatter to #OscarsSoWhite race relations seem to be on everbody’s tongue. Millions of people are giving lip service to diversity, but we are doing it in the most color-blindingly-racist way possible.

We should be constructing the framework of a national philosophy to eradicate racism through our collective conversation. Instead, we are venting repressed racism from mostly african-americans towards other groups — like asian-americans, latin-americans, and caucasian-americans.

Take, for instance, the open letter to the Oscars regarding how offensive their program was to asians. According to that letter:

In light of criticism over #OscarsSoWhite, we were hopeful that the telecast would provide the Academy a way forward and the chance to present a spectacular example of inclusion and diversity. Instead, the Oscars show was marred by a tone-deaf approach to its portrayal of Asians.

For an Oscars that was trying very hard not to be racist, they certainly failed. According to the #BlackLivesMatter own website the movement:

Is a tactic to (re)build the Black liberation movement.

Does that sound to you like a neighborly message of unity? To me it sounds like a divisive call to arms whose creators hopefully had the best of intentions, but fell prey to their own cognitive biases.

Branching out racism to include whites, yellows, and browns, is still racism. At it’s core, any black, white, asian, or latin lives matter movement that separates humans into disassociated categories is systemically racist.

Heck, when even Bill Clinton can’t stand you, you know you can’t pull the race-card anymore. While being confronted by #BlackLivesMatters protesters Bill gave us all perspective when he said:

I love protesters. But the ones who won’t let you answer are afraid of the truth.

Now, the organizers of the #BlackLivesMatter movement are being very vocal (pun intended) about the fact that they technically aren’t saying that other colors don’t matter. They’re technically trying to say that black lives matter, too. The organizers emphasize how this “too” changes the message from an appeal to black power to an message of inclusion. I wonder why there’s no #BlackLivesMatterToo hashtag?

Instead of singling out and uplifting a single race at the expense of other races — because that’s worked so well in the past — why don’t we fight to uplift all humankind?

What about the untold number of innocent North Korean families who are in WWII Nazi-style concentration camps today?

What about all of the women in arab countries who are raped, murdered, and defiled? Will you fight for them? No. Why? Because they’re not black?!?

What about the millions of people suffering in Venezuela and Greece? Will you fight for them? Only the black ones you say?

What about the millions of poor people (of all races) suffering right here in the USA? Will you fight for them? Again, only the black ones!

If you will only fight for people who have your same skin color, you are a racist.

So, while you’re patting yourself on the back about how diverse you are, take a moment to think outside of the box.

We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them. — Albert Einstein