Lately, in the news, we've been seeing more protests and rallies as a part of the Black Lives Matter movement. The movement, started in 2012, after the court case surrounding George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. According to the organization, the hashtag is meant to represent "broadening the conversation around state violence to include all of the ways in which black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state."
Since 2012, there have been various accounts of police brutality and violence against the black community. However, there have only been 14 cases in the spotlight from 2012 to 2015.
Since the start of the Black Lives Matter movement, some people have started to say All Lives Matter in contrast. Many, without realizing it, are feeding racism and hate back into our society with the counter-movement.
The lives of cops matter. The lives of white Americans matter. The lives of black Americans matter. All lives do matter. But the Black Lives Matter movement is not saying that only black lives matter, but that they matter, too. When you use #AllLivesMatter, you are taking away from the black movement. You are telling them that they are wrong.
America is a patriarchal society. This means that white men are automatically in power.
There's an analogy that I saw online that is pretty perfect in explaining the difference between the two movements. In summary, it said:
Bob is sitting at a dinner table full of people. He has an empty plate in front of him and says, "Bob deserves food." Everyone else, with plates full of food, looks up and says, "Everyone deserves food." While the statement is true that everyone deserves food, it does not rectify that Bob has no food to begin with.
This is the case with the Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter movements.
All Lives Matter is a racist movement, whether you intentionally mean it to be one or not.
When you overpower or overshadow one group of people, that is racism.
When you tell one group of people that they do not have a reason to be upset over systemic oppression, that is racism.
It is OK to mourn the lives of slain cops. It is OK to mourn the lives of black Americans murdered. You can support brave and loyal police officers who are doing their jobs the right way. But do not support dirty cops who are malicious, violent and cruel.
Saying "Black Lives Matter" is not saying that all lives do not matter. It is saying that right now, our society does not value black lives as much as other lives.
It is time to put down our weapons and stop the hate. That is the only way we, as a country, can overcome.
