The phrase “All Lives Matter” came as a form of resistance to counter the abuse of the term “Black Lives Matter”.
Popular hate mongers would have you believe that it is anti-black and racist.
Fact check:
The phrase “All Lives Matter” is not racist. Its more accepting and embraces everyone who needs help, including the American black population.
Here’s why and how it came about.
The “Black Lives Matter” phrase started out with a noble intention. It advocated for more empathy and support for American black people.
The reason for this is that a much larger proportion of the black population is under-privileged — living in poverty, crime infested neighborhoods, and so on.
They are more likely to be in the cross-hairs of police action.
So the “Black Lives Matter” slogan came about to tell us: “Please pay more attention. Black people have been stereotyped and are more likely to be subjected to police action and fall further behind in life. They deserve better. Help.”
So it was a way to reserve more social capital to the upliftment of black people and help them escape the negative spiral that comes from police action.
The ideas were simple and powerful. More empathy in policing, more social programs, less use of lethal force, more black police officers in black neighborhoods because they know the culture, and so on.
But then activists started mis-using the phrase “Black Lives Matter”. They started to imply that white people were racist, other races such as Asian and Indian people had more privilege and supported racism, and so on. They claimed “white supremacy”, and started vilifying the police.
The most famous example of this misguided action was when football player Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem as a sign of protest against the continuing inaction by society towards this cause.
Kaepernick’s actions were then unfortunately promoted to shift the dialog from “Black Lives Matter” to “fight against racism”. His actions were used as a vehicle to assign blame instead of bringing people together.
Many other celebrities and famous athletes who wanted to join in also adopted this divisive way to show their support. And many politicians sought to benefit from this divisive sentiment too.
As a result, emboldened by such support from celebrities, activists of the “Black Lives Matter” movement made it about division and “black-versus white” rather than about “helping black people”. They actively started discriminating against others. They influenced college going kids who easily bought into the false propaganda. After all, youngsters want to change the world and are easily influenced by well meaning slogans.
And the BLM or “Black Lives Matter” movement became a cesspool of racism and hate. It became a political tool against people from other races, especially white Americans, and became a way to vilify political opponents who wouldn’t buy into the hateful propaganda.
As a result, real liberals and moderates came up with a new term “All Lives Matter” as a way to counter that sentiment of racism and division.
“All Lives Matter” started out as a way to say “no more racism”. We are all in this together. They rejected the racist “BLM” or “Black Lives Matter” organization, but embraced the underlying noble idea that black people — and also other underprivileged people regardless of race — needed more help and attention.
In fact, due to the overwhelming racism of BLM, other terms came up:
- “Blue Lives Matter” came up to support the police officers against a constant stream of insults and disrespect.
- “Asian Lives Matter” came up to protect from crime against Asians (which was unfortunately perpetrated more by blacks given the statistics of crime).
And so the next time you hear someone say that “All Lives Matter” is racist, be sure to push back. Go ahead and question their intentions.
Always ask questions and be curious.
People who promote “Black Lives Matter” but are against “White Lives Matter” may be benefitting from spreading more racism — politically, economically, etc. They may be writing or speaking about it to get more readers. Or their political campaign may benefit from these harmful racial sentiments.
Look around you. You’ll see your friends are good people who mingle with each other regardless of race. Use that truth to escape the harmful propaganda of racial division and hate.
Exceptions may be in every community. Anyone can be racist — black, white, Asian, Indian. Don’t let those few bad people dominate the goodness in your heart.
We are all one. Let’s push back against the people who want to divide us by race.
Adopt any cause and strive to help— “All Lives Matter”, “Blue Lives Matter”, “Asian Lives Matter” or “Black Lives Matter”.
And remember to oppose hate and division in any form.
