All Lives Matter

In concluding this series on Baltimore and other recent racial injustices and protests, I want to address the “All lives matter” comment that people are using to replace “Black lives matter.” While I have said the very same slogan, I do not think this should be a replacement. Replacing “Black” with “All” is to deny that there is a problem as it pertains specifically to the Black community.

Here’s the thing. I don’t think the value of all lives is being contested. At least, it’s not by the people I know. So, I don’t think we need to be reminded about all lives right now.

The constant parade of Black people being shot, brutalized and killed begs the reminder that Black lives are not simply expendable. You should not get to assume they’re guilty before applying this mythical due process and then say “oops” without retribution.

Yes, all lives matter. But it seems recently that Black lives have been at the bottom of that preferential list. The lack of cautiousness and care with respect to Black lives is indicative of the fact that many people believe other lives matter more. If this were not true, people would approach each potential criminal the same.

I’m curious as to how Joseph Houseman, a 63-year-old, allegedly intoxicated man who hurled obscenities at police while toting a loaded AK47 was able to be talked down after 40 minutes but John Crawford III of Ohio was shot and killed while holding a toy pellet gun in Wal-Mart only seconds after being encountered. Arguments can be made that these are different states and different police departments. But both are open-carry states that should have afforded Mr. Crawford the right to carry a real weapon. Nonetheless, very similar calls made to the police departments resulted in vastly different outcomes.

It is obvious the way Black people are viewed colors (pun intended) how they are treated. By the way people assume that I am uneducated; that most Black men are not gainfully employed; that most Black women are on welfare with many children by different fathers; by the way a Black man walking through a neighborhood is treated as threat or a thief.

To understand this mentality, you have to go back as far as the 1800s. Photos like the one below depict Blacks as savage animals intent upon destroying America. Over time, political correctness curbed the way in which these ideas were communicated.

However, more recently, especially with respect to the current First Family, these types of photos are being remounted and distributed to another generation of impressionable minds. Old pictures and new cartoons alike are cropping up on the Internet every day proving this ancient opinion of Black Americans is still quite present.

Yes, all lives matter. Yes, all lives, those of police officers included, are valuable. Yes other races face their own stereotypes that put them in precarious and unfair situations. But more and more as of late, it seems like the situations Blacks face have culminated in many deaths.

By saying Black lives matter, our community is not saying other lives do not. We are simply reminding a country that has seemed to have forgotten that our collective lives, with whatever failures and successes, good choices or mistakes are worth living. And if these lives are unexplainably and/or unfairly stolen, we deserve the justice that is afforded to others, regardless of race or occupation of those who stole it.

So, in short, if you think the phrase “Black lives matter,” takes away from your value or that of any other race, you have missed the point of the campaign.