Black People: "Black Lives Matter!"
The Nation: "All Lives Matter!"
The black lives matter vs. all lives matter debate has been going on for a while now. To be honest, all lives do matter, but some people have a hard time realizing that. The world constantly continues to scream out "All lives matter," but their actions show all lives matter except people of color. Let's go back in time for a moment: has the nation ever really acknowledged that all lives matter?
Did all lives matter when our ancestors were slaves? Nope, your life only mattered if you were white. Did all lives matter when we had to fight in order to receive a proper education? No. Once again, only white lives mattered. There are numerous times in history when black lives didn't matter, and even now it still seems like black lives still don't matter.
One of the biggest arguments against the black lives matter movement is that black people kill one another every day. This is true, but when black people kill one another we are sent to jail. When the cops kill us, they get paid time off. In my opinion "all lives matter" doesn't even seem like a legit movement. We say "black lives matter" when a black person is gunned down for no reason. People respond with "All lives matter" because they get offended because of the assumption that we believe our lives matter more than theirs. All lives matter wouldn't be so upsetting if it was said every time someone was killed without reason, but instead it is said to shut us up.
White people are constantly being treated better than us, but don't like to admit that they have privilege. They force us to scream out "black lives matter" because people like Dylann Roof and George Zimmerman get to live, but Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and countless more had to die.
There is no reason that the Black Lives Matter Movement should offend anyone. When we cry out black lives matter, we are not saying that the lives of others do not. It's a simple statement declaring that black people are are tired of the pain that is constantly inflicted on us, we are tired of being looked over, and most importantly we matter, and we're here to stay.
