The next time someone says ‘all lives matter,’ show them these 5 paragraphs

[groundloop]

I found this link from a posting on facebook, it's very much worth reading. (I wish I could write as eloquently as this).

http://fusion.net/story/170591/the-next-time-someone-says-all-lives-matter-show-them-these-5-paragraphs/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialshare&utm_content=theme_top_desktop


This week, high-profile police killings of two black men—Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile, who was killed in Falcon Heights, Minnesota—have renewed heated debates about police violence, and brought the Black Lives Matter movement back into the spotlight.

Every time this happens, cries of “Black Lives Matter” tend to be met with the response “All Lives Matter.” Even presidential candidates have made this mistake—last year, Hillary Clinton said “All Lives Matter,” though she has since corrected herself. And lots of white people have expressed confusion about why it’s controversial to broaden the #BlackLivesMatter movement to include people of all races.

The real issue is that, while strictly true, “All Lives Matter” is a tone-deaf slogan that distracts from the real problems black people in America face.

The best explanation we’ve seen so far comes from Reddit, of all places. Last year, in an “Explain Like I’m 5” thread, user GeekAesthete explained, clearly and succinctly, why changing #BlackLivesMatter to #AllLivesMatter is an act of erasure that makes lots of people cringe.

GeekAesthete explains:

Imagine that you’re sitting down to dinner with your family, and while everyone else gets a serving of the meal, you don’t get any. So you say “I should get my fair share.” And as a direct response to this, your dad corrects you, saying, “everyone should get their fair share.” Now, that’s a wonderful sentiment — indeed, everyone should, and that was kinda your point in the first place: that you should be a part of everyone, and you should get your fair share also. However, dad’s smart-ass comment just dismissed you and didn’t solve the problem that you still haven’t gotten any!

The problem is that the statement “I should get my fair share” had an implicit “too” at the end: “I should get my fair share, too, just like everyone else.” But your dad’s response treated your statement as though you meant “only I should get my fair share”, which clearly was not your intention. As a result, his statement that “everyone should get their fair share,” while true, only served to ignore the problem you were trying to point out.

That’s the situation of the “black lives matter” movement. Culture, laws, the arts, religion, and everyone else repeatedly suggest that all lives should matter. Clearly, that message already abounds in our society.

The problem is that, in practice, the world doesn’t work that way. You see the film Nightcrawler? You know the part where Renee Russo tells Jake Gyllenhal that she doesn’t want footage of a black or latino person dying, she wants news stories about affluent white people being killed? That’s not made up out of whole cloth — there is a news bias toward stories that the majority of the audience (who are white) can identify with. So when a young black man gets killed (prior to the recent police shootings), it’s generally not considered “news”, while a middle-aged white woman being killed is treated as news. And to a large degree, that is accurate — young black men are killed in significantly disproportionate numbers, which is why we don’t treat it as anything new. But the result is that, societally, we don’t pay as much attention to certain people’s deaths as we do to others. So, currently, we don’t treat all lives as though they matter equally.

Just like asking dad for your fair share, the phrase “black lives matter” also has an implicit “too” at the end: it’s saying that black lives should also matter. But responding to this by saying “all lives matter” is willfully going back to ignoring the problem. It’s a way of dismissing the statement by falsely suggesting that it means “only black lives matter,” when that is obviously not the case. And so saying “all lives matter” as a direct response to “black lives matter” is essentially saying that we should just go back to ignoring the problem.

Yep, there you go. Bookmark it, print it out, give it to your friends.

[Skinner]

1. That's one of the best explanations I've seen.

Thank you for posting.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

2. K&R nt

[Amaril]

3. Thanks for posting this!

I have a few people in my life who like to use the "all lives matter" response, and this writer put into very succinct words what I always "try" to say.

It will definitely come in handy!

[gratuitous]

11. Or a short primer on how you can tell whose life matters

When someone is killed, here are some things that will tell you how much that person’s life mattered in the community:

Do the governmental authorities promise to do everything in their power to find the culprits and bring them to justice, or do they counsel public patience while they try to figure out just what happened?

When a likely culprit is identified, is that person taken into custody and subjected to questioning or is that person allowed to go home for 30 days at full pay while his or her co-workers, friends and colleagues examine the facts and evidence?

Are the survivors and families told in various ways to be patient and wait for the facts to come fully out, or are they provided a media platform to express their grief, sorrow, anger, and desire for vengeance?

Do the local and national media express solidarity with and validation of those feelings, or do they find the spectacle rather distasteful?

Is the victim’s past fly-specked for any justification for what happened, or is the victim honored as a full member of the community whose sudden absence is a loss everyone will feel?

How these items and others are handled should give you a pretty good indication of whether that person’s life mattered in the community.

[July]

15. Very well put, gratuitous.

I think that when people respond to "Black lives matter" with "All lives matter" the short response should be "Prove it."

[G_j]

4. K&R!

[retrowire]

5. but thinking of that caliber cant exist on a bumper sticker!!!

Great explanation.

[thesquanderer]

6. If they had called the movement BLMT (Black Lives Matter, Too), they could have prevented...

...the "all lives matter" retort, which is a semantic distraction from a genuine issue. Coincidentally, I just posted about this at http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027989437#post15

The thing is, the article referenced in the OP is correct in that "too" is implied, but implications are subtle, especially to people who's natural perspective is so different to begin with. So it's better to forego subtlety and knock people over the head with a direct, unambiguous message. It would have been better if they had included "too" to begin with.

[Ilsa]

20. ITA. Make the statement totally clear

so there is nothing to debate unless it's a racist position.

[clarice]

7. Hi Groundloop...very interesting post... I've given this issue a lot of....

thought. First, let's be clear ( to all people reading this) that I am NOT trying to marginalize the phrase
"Black Lives Matter" . You seem like an intelligent person, so I know that you will recognize the fact that
I am playing a bit of the Devil's advocate here.

If our goal as a Nation is to achieve total inclusiveness, aren't their certain phrases such as "All American",
and "La Raza", that by their semantics, are actually EXCLUSIONARY? I would never try to put words into the mouths of our former great leaders, and granted, it was a different time then.. But I could imagine Dr. King and M. Gandhi using the phrase
"all lives matter"

[IronLionZion]

8. Yup, I can give it to colorblind DUers who don't see race

They have lots of wonderful sentiments that express how they are so blissfully and willfully oblivious to the fact they are not being killed or experiencing blatant discrimination by those other oversensitive types.



One doesn't have to be racist to enjoy all the benefits of racism like never being blocked out from jobs because you don't "look" like a US Citizen or not being publicly executed for "looking" like a dangerous criminal.

[forgotmylogin]

9. Even shorter: "focus does not imply exclusion"

This from the Law professor who responded to an anonymous student's letter complaining of a BLM t-shirt worn to class.

There is not an implied "only" in front of "black lives matter."

[johnp3907]

10. All Houses Matter.

[billhicks76]

12. It's Not "Only Black Lives Matter"

It's "Black Lives Matter Too". Only racist bigot lowlifes can't tell the difference and it appears we have just as many of them as we did decades ago because we didn't deal with them head on after the 70s ended.

[bjobotts]

13. Also just saying black lives matters emphasizes that fact and puts focus on its importance

Gets people saying it over and over again to the point that black lives are just as important as all lives.
When my dad died I was devastated and if I said my dad's live mattered and you replied all dad's lives matter it would be unsympathetic since I was not saddened by all other dad's lives.
At a micro level it shows the point of how personal it becomes especially since black lives have been so oppressed. Black lives matter but there are many who act like they don't...and many carry a badge and gun. The Dallas PD is a very good example of well trained POs who are trained in racial sensitivity and BLM. They should serve as an example of how officers should act.

[tomfodw]

14. "Too"

Perfectly put.

But anyone who would listen to this already understands it. I doubt anyone who would need to have this explained to them will be in any way disposed to paying attention. Sigh.

[femmedem]

16. We have to specify and insist that black lives matter because "white lives matter" is a given

in our country, with our history.

[LiberalLovinLug]

17. There is a kind of semantic problem that has nothing to do with the very real problem

Black systemic racism has existed ever since they were forced into ships and brought over. Now it is simply institutionalized and disguised. All one has to do is look at statistics of police stops, arrests, incarcerations, and yes, deaths at the hands of the justice system. Clearly, from an overall viewpoint, black lives DON'T matter as much as white lives. And we have to do more.

But I've always seen a problem with interpretation of both phrases. Some tend to interpret each one from a different direction or mindset. Interpret the inflection differently. That both statements can mean the opposite of each other, or can mean the same thing, depending on the mindset.

"Black lives matter" can be interpreted, depending on the mindset, as "Only Black lives matter" (on the extreme racist end) and by others as "Black lives matter as much as white lives"

"All lives matter" can be interpreted as dismissing black concerns by not specifically mentioning them in the statement, and by others as, once again, "Black lives matter as much as white lives"

"All lives matter!" said in a magniloquent dismissive way

"All lives matter" said with equal inflection in an inclusive way

One of the problems is that a fully committed sheet wearing KKK member or just a serial Fox News watcher can say "All lives matter!" in response to "Black lives mater" and mean it in the way this OP describes. That is, it is simply a nice sounding statement they can hide behind and meanwhile they do nothing about it, maybe even do worse and help vote in some racist congressman.

But another person can say "All lives matter" not as as way to trivialize the very real issues, the very real DANGER for everyday lives of African Americans, but say it to mean the opposite, that improving things for everyone is the ONLY way to fight institutional racism. Of course it doesn't mean that specific laws like affirmative action are not still necessary, it just that they believe that the only way to combat this insidious institutional racism in a more permanent way is to change laws, change police training, use of police body cams, and finding and changing the cloaked racist policies that some politicians get away with.

But also to raise minimum wages, free college, single payer heath care, and other policies that would help to move the country at least a little more towards a more egalitarian society. Many of these polices will of course help disadvantaged people of ALL races. And thats part of the solution as well. That the only sustainable solutions are universal changes that affect all citizens. That when the understandable social unrest and depression and feelings of hopelessness in EVERY community is reduced, desperate acts of crime are reduced, domestic violence reduced, angry violent responses by those on the extreme end that simply causes a tit for tat buildup. To be simplistic, there would be less to fight about, less reasons to blame the "other" for ones problems.


"But your dad’s response treated your statement as though you meant “only I should get my fair share"

Yes, there are many, especially on the right, that will interpret "Black lives matter" as this and include the "only". (Clearly this "dad" was discriminating on one of his children by not feeding them.) But its a mistake to add that word preemptively to every person that initially responds with "all lives matter". I think its a mistake to ignore that there are a great many, especially on the left, who are sympathetic to BLM and also believe that the solution itself to "black lives DO NOT matter" is to change the actual underpinnings, laws, police enforcement procedures, wages, access to healthcare, higher education etc...and that will naturally affect and improve ALL lives that are stuck in poverty in an unfair system, and in fact is the ONLY sustainable, permanent way to fight this for the long term.

[backscatter712]

18. When some douchenozzle says "All lives matter"...

...I just mentally note him as one of the numbwits who needs to be pushed to the kids table while adults are talking about these issues.

[raven mad]

19. Excellent post.

Yes, all lives matter, but institutionalized racism makes sure the "too" or "but" is there.

K&R, bookmarked.

[DesertRat]

21. k&r