What's the Matter with 'All Lives Matter'

[gollygee]

I only copied part of the first point, due to DU's copyright rules. There's lots here though.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-bedrick/whats-the-matter-with-all-lives-matter_b_7922482.html

When people say "All Lives Matter" in response to "Black Lives Matter," they are not simply opening their arms to the greater diversity of humanity. Instead, they are taking race out of the conversation. While the statement masquerades as a bright and inclusive light, in the shadow of this statement hides a willful ignorance of America's racist past and present.

There is not doubt that racism exists today. The research evidence is vast, clear and widely available from differential stop and frisk rates, sentencing levels and job hiring.

A most telling statistic about the difference in the lack of valuation of a black life comes from a study conducted by Allan Collard-Wexler, an NYU Stern School economist: "[T]he cost of adopting a black baby needs to be $38,000 lower than the cost of a white baby, in order to make parents indifferent to race."

Adding insult to injury, asserting that all lives matter in response to black folks declaring that black lives matter, turns our eyes away from acknowledging America's racist past, functioning as a form of dismissal or denial.

[angryvet]

1. The reich wing

response to "Black lives Matter" is an indication of their pathology. There is absolutely nothing wrong implied in that slogan...unless you want there to be.

[gollygee]

2. It isn't just the right wing

We have people at DU responding to Black Lives Matter in that way, right here on the first page of GD.

[tavernier]

4. This is what I wrote in another post:

I don't know who came up with the phrase Black Lives Matter.

I really wish that they had thought it through. People of any other race immediately turn the channel, turn the page, walk away from the discussion. Why? Because by simple definition, the subject matter only involves black lives.

Why should I listen? If I receive a letter that is addressed to Everyone Residing on Elm Street, and I live on Maple Street, I won't open the letter. Why would I? If it is addressed to everyone on Elm and Maple Streets, now we're talking a different story.

It's a poorly thought out title for a movement that wishes to stress equality.
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I don't see anything wrong with this opinion, but I suppose I'll be labeled some kind of racist or bigot for expressing it.

[brer cat]

7. Totally patronizing for sure.

I just hope that if "they" ever come for white people, they get your name and address right on the envelope. Otherwise your head will be so buried in the sand that you won't see what is coming.

[tavernier]

12. Well I won that bet.

Good luck with your all inclusive, warm and welcoming movement. Be sure to call everyone who stops by patronizing.

[brer cat]

5. Sad and discouraging, isn't it?

What really galls me about some of the posts here is that the tone is totally patronizing, as if black people have to be told how, when, and where to call attention to the gross injustice they live with every day.

Great read, gollygee. The money quote to me: "Putting it simply, if we erase race, we won't see racism." An uncomfortable truth.

K&R

[sheshe2]

3. Thank you gollygee.

Excellent read..

When a white person responds to the statement "Black Lives Matter" by countering with "All Lives Matter" they exhibit a blindness to the privilege of living outside of a painful and marginalizing lens that highlights their race; a privilege not enjoyed by black and brown people.

In the words of Jarune Uwujaren, "f you have trouble seeing race or are tired of people making things about race, realize that if they could, most people of color would ignore race too."

[Maedhros]

6. The problem with "All Lives Matter" is that it completely diverts attention

from the fact that young black men and women are being killed by police at rates far exceeding their proportion of the populace, and the officers and departments responsible for their deaths repeatedly avoid accountability for their actions.

To me, the phrase "black lives matter" is a response to the fact that nobody cares that police institutions are given a free pass for using deadly force disproportionately against black citizens. It's a call to pull our collective heads out of the sand and pay attention.

[uppityperson]

10. Exactly, thank you for putting it more clear than I did.

[RichGirl]

8. Has anyone EVER questioned whether white lives matter??? NO!!!!

IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE SAID!! It's that simple.

Many African Americans feel as if they don't matter, racists don't think that they do matter...so it needs to be said and asserted and repeated until everyone gets it.

[uppityperson]

9. I originally said that, then realized my error.

Of course all lives matter, but by phrasing it that way I ignored the overt and covert societal racism. In effect "all lves matter" too often ends up being "except those of color matter less". It is heartbreaking to have to say " black lives matter", to have to point that out because it points out the racism that is all too common.

We would not HAVE to say BLM it there wasn't that racism that too often results in injury or even nastiness towards people of color.

My apologies if my wording is still incorrect, am trying to say I reversed my thinking on this. BLM.

[romanic]

11. Nothing wrong with the phrase itself.

Its the reasoning and people behind it plus the phrase is reactionary and apathetic (as we have seen by racists who didn't say one word of outrage in Zach Hammond's death).

[Hydra]

13. There are two common applications of the phrase

Last edited Sat Sep 19, 2015, 09:39 PM - Edit history (1)

The people who actually do think that all lives matter, and the RW people who, when they say it, mean "no lives matter."

I've argued from the first that we shouldn't allow them to steal the phrase, but the focus seems to be to attack the phrase rather than the people misusing it...which surprises me not at all after how we've allowed the RW to demonize our most sacred principles and allow them to become insults.

[Android3.14]

14. Nicely put

The author might open a dialogue.

[Garrett78]

15. The next time someone says "All lives matter," show them this cartoon.

http://www.vox.com/2015/9/4/9258133/white-lives-matter?ref=yfp

I appreciated a comment left by someone in response to this article: http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/07/31/427851451/democratic-candidates-stumble-over-black-lives-matter-movement

The commenter, TwentyTwo Over Seven, wrote, "When someone says "Black Lives Matter" or uses the BlackLivesMatter hashtag, they aren't saying "black lives matter, others don't", they're saying "black lives matter, too". Pretending otherwise is akin to assuming that someone doing a fundraiser for breast cancer is saying that Alzheimer's is unimportant. Of course that's not what they're saying, and intentionally misinterpreting it as such is dishonest, attempting to cast someone as racist simply for pointing out the racism that exists in the world. It's an attempt to shut down substantive conversation in the service of maintaining the (racist) status quo."