Black Lives Matter, and I say that as a white person. I’m not the best person to write this, I’m not the best at expressing my feelings, but I’ll try my best, so here goes…
I have close friends and family friends who say ‘all lives matter’ and ‘blue lives matter’ and most of them are taller or physically stronger people than me, so I get afraid of responding and calling them out, so I’m stuck writing this to express my thoughts about it. I’m tired of ‘all lives matter’ or ‘blue lives matter’. To get to the point, to say anything other than black lives matter is stupid as well as racist. I’ll start with ‘all lives matter’.
When people say ‘black lives matter’ they are precisely saying that the lives of black people matter, that they’re human beings deserving of full human rights. They’re not saying black lives are superior to other people. They’re not saying that white lives don’t matter. That’s not what they’re saying. They’re saying… BLACK… LIVES… MATTER!!!!! This country has made, since its creation, black lives not matter. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, school segregation, today’s voting ID laws, the prison industrial complex, the police… I could go on and on about the oppression black people have suffered at the hands of the U.S.
But wait, Obama got elected president, so we must be in a post-racial society right?! No. Obama’s presidency, if anything, has exposed how racist this country still is. Plus, some black people have called Obama an Uncle Tom, because he has upheld all the institutions which have forever oppressed black lives. I’m not one to have judgement on that, because I’m white.
What about the national anthem protests? Black people aren’t patriotic you say, you say it’s disrespectful to sit or kneel during the anthem. You say it’s a disservice to the troops, to the police or whatever… I have just one word for you… BULL SHIT!!! The third verse of the national anthem celebrates slavery. Also, black people can say, righteously, that the flag represents all the institutions of oppression with which they have suffered from. With the military, Muhammed Ali went to jail to avoid the Vietnam War, because he rightly saw it as imperialism. Why fight for a country which oppresses your own people? Why honor the troops of a country which oppresses your own people? Also, from me personally, as a concept, fuck patriotism! On Labor Day, this year, just a few days ago, the U.S bombed seven countries. The Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t see borders as separating people, they only see the people being oppressed no matter where or how. The movement has solidarity with the indigenous blocking pipelines in the U.S & Canada, they have solidarity with the Palestinians under apartheid in colonial Israel, they have solidarity with the Yemeni’s being obliterated by the Saudi’s with U.S bombs. Basically, take your patriotism and shove it up your ass.
Now, for ‘blue lives matter’. Nobody is born blue, aka a cop. Nobody is born a cop. You choose to be a cop. Black people didn’t choose to be black, they were born black. When you CHOOSE to be a cop, you’re choosing to face the dangers of that duty every day. Black people didn’t choose to face the danger and oppression of being black every day. Black people didn’t choose to be slaves. They didn’t choose to be segregated in schools. They didn’t choose the drug war. They didn’t choose voter ID laws. They didn’t choose welfare reform. They didn’t choose to be called Super predators. They didn’t choose to be called thugs or negroes or niggers or whatever other racist words they get called. They didn’t choose all that shit, they didn’t choose to be born black. People who become cops, to be in law enforcement, they chose that line of duty. Also, law enforcement has so many protections under the law. They are in no way oppressed. If anything, being in law enforcement grants you so much privilege.
People in law enforcement already matter, the law says they do. The state says they do. White people already matter, the law and state say so. That’s me. That’s my close friends. That’s my dad’s side of the family. So, there’s no reason to say ‘all lives matter’ or ‘blue lives matter’. If you say either of those, you’re being a racist. That applies to any friends or family of mine that read this. I don’t want to hear you say anything but black lives matter.
I would write a lot more about this, but it’d go more in depth into imperialism, patriotism, all the institutions of oppression, capitalism, colonialism and yea. I just wanted to focus specifically on Black Lives Matter and the protests. So yea. Signing out, but not before saying one last time… BLACK LIVES MATTER.
adamkendall2 