Don't "All Lives Matter?"

“Black Lives Matter” can come off as confrontational, distancing Black people from other races. This initial reaction has motivated the slogan “All Lives Matter” in response. However, the response “All Lives Matter” is a misinterpretation of a movement by the Black community.The phrase “Black Lives Matter” is not suggesting other lives do not matter; instead the phrase is responding to the oppression against Black Americans stemming from systemic racism.

Police brutality and its disproportionate effect on Black lives is the clearest form of this oppression. Since 2013, 28% of police brutality victims have been Black people despite representing only 13% of the American population. This reality fuels the Black Lives Matter movement and its aim to shine the spotlight on racial inequity.

The explicit imagery of the recent murders of George Floyd and Jacob Blake has highlighted the issue of systemic racism and further driven the BLM movement in 2020.

Let's borrow an example from John Powell, a director at the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley. Imagine you have a multi-floored building where everyone is situated on the ground floor but with no means of ascending. The first solution proposed is to install stairs that link up the ground floor with those above it. This solution is a success for a majority of the people waiting at the bottom, but they begin to realize it does not suit everyone. For instance, handicapped individuals in wheelchairs cannot take advantage of the stairs. To accommodate these people, an elevator is installed and now the handicapped have a means of ascending. “Black Lives Matter” does not suggest that those capable of walking up the stairs do not matter. Instead, it is shining a light on the handicapped who cannot take advantage of the structures in place and arguing for alternate structures, like the elevator, to account for the rest of the group. On the other hand, “All Lives Matter” ignores the disabilities crippling the handicapped while pretending to suggest empathy for the entire building.