Black Lives Matter vs. Black lives, matter.
Perhaps we're focusing on the wrong thing.
I get it. I really do.
I get not wanting to align yourself with an organization whose mission is unclear, whose leaders are unknown and whose purpose seems extremely difficult to decipher.
I’ve been vegan for nearly 15 years of my life. It’s something I’ve very passionate about. I support a lot of organizations that help with animal rights and promote a plant based cruelty free lifestyle. But you know what? I'm not quite on board with everything that PETA does to get their message across. It’s one organization that rubs me the wrong way. But I remind myself often that not supporting the organization doesn’t mean I’m not for the movement. I will always fight for animal rights and convince people that a plant-based lifestyle could save the planet.
So when it comes to Black Lives Matter, I understand people’s resistance. I understand the confusion. I understand not knowing what it is we are fighting for.
I too have found myself asking questions, perplexed by certain statements, confused as to who is leading the movement and so on and so forth.
It’s troubling and it really makes it difficult to defend. As easy as it is for people to connect Martin Luther King to the Civil rights movement in the 60’s, I wish we had a distinct face to follow during our journey now.
But let’s take the organization out of the equation for just a minute and look at the phrase.
BLACK. LIVES. MATTER.
What a controversial statement, right? An entire race of people is simply asking to matter and the country is up in arms.
But honestly, it’s simple. If you’re going to claim that all lives matter, there should be no issue saying the Black ones do. And when people who have been wrong for centuries are crying out for help there shouldn’t be any form of a rebuttal to that statement. If we had put the word “too” at the end, would that have made things better? Would it have made people more comfortable? People weren’t comfortable with the idea of black lives mattering, at least not any more than anyone else’s. But the fact is we know they don’t. History has show us that.
They didn’t matter during the slave trade.
They didn’t matter during the Jim Crow era.
They didn’t matter during redlining.
They didn’t matter during police brutality.
And they don’t matter now.
But they should.
So I ask you…..Do Black lives matter?
It’s a simple yes or no question.
If your answer to this question is yes, but it follows with “but, All lives matter", then your problem is with the word black, and can stop reading this.
But if your answer is simply yes, then I ask you this: why can’t it just stop there?
Why not just emphatically make the statement that black lives matter to let an entire race of people know you support them and believe in their fight for equality?
Why not state that black lives matter because history has shown that the America we live in has not treated them as such.
No one is asking you to align yourself with an organization.
No one is asking you to support “looting and rioting" because truly, no one supports that.
We as a people are simply asking for you to acknowledge that America as a whole has a long history of wronging Black lives for something as simple as the color of their skin.
The black community has a long strained relationship with this country. One that is broken and after 400 years, it’s about time that changed.
About the Creator
Malynda Hale
Malynda Hale is a singer, activist and mom based in Los Angeles. She has uses her voice to effect change with social justice and she currently hosts her own podcast called #WeNeedToTalk. @malyndahale
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