#BlackLivesMatter does not mean yours doesn't matter.
This movement is not calling for black supremacy. It is calling for the destruction of white supremacy that this country was built upon. As a white person, your life has always mattered. Since the beginning. While black people were being enslaved, being sold, and being abused, our white ancestors were thriving and profiting from it.
And if you're scared of the destruction of white supremacy, then you should think about why that is. You can either sit back and foolishly think that racism is dead, or you can recognize that it is just as present now as it was back then.
Racism is not gone.
You might think that being "colorblind" is helpful and appropriate because we grew up in classrooms with teachers who taught us that racism ended with Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, and we're taught that "equality" will make everything better.
But here's the thing: you need to learn the difference between equality and equity.
Treating every person "equally" does not benefit a country that is built on systematic racism. Equality does not work unless every individual has an equivalent starting place. And in America, even generations after the abolishment of slavery, a white person is still born with more privileges than a black person.
Even if a white man and black man work equally as hard to build a life for themselves, the white man will always have it easier because of his privilege. Yes, the big scary term "white privilege" that everyone wants to deny, but there's no denying it.
As white people, we are born with it, and the most detrimental thing a white person can do is to pretend their privilege doesn't exist. Because if the existence of white privilege is denied, then it can't be fixed.
No, equality isn't something that will work in a country that puts one race above another. Yes, equality is an ideal that we can strive for, but until then we must understand why equity is what is really needed at the moment.
Equity is about impartial fairness for each individual.
The image below may just be a cartoon, but the point of the image is so important to understand, and I'm only using it because I am fully aware how the difference between equality and equity can be difficult to understand at first.
Just for the purpose of the comparison please think of the Tall Guy as a white person, and think of Short Guy as a black person, and the height of the two is representative of their privilege or lack of. The left "equality" image represents the logic behind #AllLivesMatter.
Tall Guy is clearly more privileged than Short Guy, yet they have both been given the same sized box to stand on. Short Guy's lack of height (privilege) is something that's out of his control, and Tall Guy is so abundant with his privilege that he doesn't even need the box.
Giving Tall Guy the box is like white people modifying #BlackLivesMatter to #AllLivesMatter because white people don't need this movement, and including them only takes the focus away from human beings who so desperately need it.
I believe that every single person in this country should be in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement regardless of race. But white people need to learn how to be an ally without selfishly taking the spotlight off of a movement that is so necessary if equality is to ever be achieved.
The right image illustrates why equity is what's needed right now. Tall Guy doesn't need a box because because he recognizes that his privilege already gives him an advantage to being successful. Short Guy is a victim of an imbalance of power that is out of his control.
The concept of equity recognizes that because of this imbalance, movements need to be made to insure that Short Guy has the same means for success as Tall Guy. Just as after generations of horrifying oppression and abuse of black people in the US, movements like #BlackLivesMatter are a necessity to counteracting the lasting damage.
#BlackLivesMatter is not an attack on white people.
As a white person, it may make you uncomfortable at first. There's a reason for it. You've been taught your whole life that the activists like Martin Luther King Jr. completely fixed the racial divide and the battle is over. They taught you half-truths and convinced you to ignore the color of people's skin because we all have the same rights now.
Do you know why we were taught a sugar-coated version of our country's history? Because it's easier for white people to believe it.
It's easier to read the chapter on the Civil Rights Movement and to close the book as if the story is over. But that was only a chapter, and there are endless pages to fill.
And that's exactly why I've taken the time to try and explain this for those of you who support the ignorant hashtag that is #AllLivesMatter. I've always been someone who is quick to delete people who share or post anything remotely racist because it infuriates me.
However, I've recently realized that deleting an ignorant person is not going to make them any less ignorant. This article may seem condescending as if I'm putting myself on a pedestal, but I promise I grew up just as misinformed as the rest of us.
Even in my senior year of high school, I was given an essay prompt in my AP Language course which asked us to argue whether or not we thought the world would function better with a "colorblind" mentality, or if it was important to acknowledge the diversity among us, and I will not deny that I chose to argue in favor of colorblindness.
With the education I had in the moment, I was actually convinced that colorblindness prompted harmony, and to acknowledge race would be racist and wrong. It wasn't until I began attending a liberal arts college when I finally started realizing how ignorant I was.
Many people consider the word "ignorant" to be an insult. Being ignorant just means that you don't know something.
Ignorance is only a bad thing when someone becomes aware of their ignorance, and consciously chooses to remain ignorant.
So as I said, I've realized I would be doing a disservice by deleting someone who ignorantly uses #AllLivesMatter because everyone takes different paths after high school, and I realize some campuses might not have stressed informing their students about social justice.
I have faith that some of you using that hashtag are doing it because #AllLivesMatter really corresponds with everything most white people have been raised to think about race, but don't think that means it is excusable.
If you've read this whole thing, and you still choose to live in ignorance, and you still choose to deny your white privilege, and you still choose to believe that befriending people of color gives you a free pass for casual racism, and you still choose to remain silent after hearing a peer's racist remark, and you still choose to believe that taking a stance of indifference in these dark, violent times, then there's nothing else I have to say to you.
To continue using #AllLivesMatter is to be okay with the increasing number of black lives that have been taken by police departments all over the country. Not only are you not stopping the problem, but you are being complicit.
Let's not let the beliefs we absorbed in our younger days dictate how we will act going forward.
Learn the truth, and take back the education you were robbed of by any educator who sugar-coated the world for you. Regardless of what they are, beliefs on policy and social justice are so much stronger when they're your own.
Lastly, I have to point out the obvious fact that I am not the voice of this movement. I am an ally. I have no idea and cannot comprehend what it feels like for black people experiencing this hateful world, and that's why as white allies we need to open our ears and listen to them.
We need to stop letting white conservatives in the media like Tomi Lahren dismiss the struggles and silence the voices of black activists, and we need to be active in this war on blatant racism in our country because #BlackLivesMatter
