Part 1 of 2

So, What’s Wrong With ‘All Lives Matter,’ Anyway?

Oct. 17, 2015 8:30am
Mary Ramirez

No qualifier, no asterisk, no nothing. A human is a human is a human.

But last Tuesday, as I watched presidential candidates asked to actually choose between “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter,” I realized that it’s not that simple anymore.

To an increasing number of people, saying that “All Lives Matter” in the context of the “Black Lives Matter” movement is offensive, insensitive, naïve and blind.

I’m flabbergasted — “all lives” doesn’t obviously include black lives?

For many, it’s just not that simple.

So what gives?

WHAT MAKES ‘ALL LIVES MATTER’ SO OFFENSIVE?

Let me set up the frame of mind:

chainsawsuit.com
In this view, “All Lives Matter” means it’s irrelevant if one community of people is struggling; we can’t pay any more attention to that group than to any other. Further, it’s “obvious that white people matter” and “people don’t need to be reminded,” says the Daily Free Press.

(By the way, for this cartoon’s premise to be true, then the guy should be spraying water on both houses exactly equally. Instead, he’s smugly spraying it on a house that doesn’t need it, while ignoring the problem — ultimately communicating the idea that All Lives Matter is openly and gleefully prejudice.)

And under this premise, the supposed thoughtlessness of “All Lives Matter” becomes clearer.

But here’s the problem:

No one — absolutely no one — is suggesting that we entirely ignore a group of people for the sake of “equally” paying attention to the whole. It’s also not exclusively about white lives versus black lives. (That’s an assumption.)

What’s being challenged is the idea that some can call for recognition of their lives, while demeaning others in the process.

If it’s about the value of all black life, then:

Where’s the movement in response to the staggering loss of black life in cities like Chicago?

Where’s the movement when it comes to abortion, which has taken the lives of 16 million black babies in the past forty years alone?

If it’s not about devaluing other lives in the process, then:

Where is Black Lives Matter leadership when activists call for “open season on killing white people and crackers”?

Where is Black Lives Matter leadership when activists call for police to be “fried like bacon”?

Where are the calls decrying the glorification (and inclusion in Black Lives Matter training materials) of convicted cop killer and FBI-designated terrorist Assata Shakur?

Where are the Martin Luther King Jrs. of this movement, calling for all mankind to be judged by the “content of their character and not the color of their skin”?

In the deafening silence that answers those questions, you’ll forgive me for being leery of this movement’s motives and feeling the need to point out that — in the face of calls for my death — that my life matters, too.

Any effort purportedly seeking positive change gets nowhere so long as there is a steady undercurrent of what is ultimately revenge.

THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY IS IN TROUBLE — AND IT’S THANKS TO INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM. (OR IS IT?)

A driving force behind Black Lives Matter is the concept that racism is institutionalized. Racism, then, is the driving force behind the hardships African-Americans face.

Democratic presidential candidate Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said that “Black Lives Matter” is significant because “the African-American community knows that on any given day some innocent person like Sandra Bland can get into a car, and then three days later she’s going to end up dead in jail.”

The Bland case aside, it’s true, the African-American community is in serious trouble:

● 1 in 3 black males will go to prison in his lifetime.

● 72 percent of black children are born into broken families.

● Blacks “are about twice as likely as whites” to use welfare at some point in th lives.

Continued....

Part 2

● Black unemployment far outpaces the national average; the black poverty rate (up several points under Barack Obama, ironically) sits at 27.2 percent.

So is it institutionalized racism that is keeping black Americans down and under the thumb of a largely bigoted law enforcement and criminal justice system?

And remember, the question isn’t whether or not there was, or is racism; or whether its effects are negative (they are).

The question is: Can we blame it conclusively for the problems?

Or, should we — in the quest of intellectual honesty — consider other causes, too, like the welfare state that has existed hand-in-hand with the decline of the African-American community?

The easy path is to say I’m somehow calling African-Americans lazy freeloaders.

The easy path is to challenge my having entered this conversation in the first place, given my race and so-called privilege.

The easy path is to say we white people don’t get to “decide what is or isn’t racist because we don’t actually experience racism,” which is categorically untrue, by the way. Racism is hatred by any person for any person based solely on race. And that’s not me — that’s the English language. We don’t get to redefine language or re-categorize hate so that it fits a narrative. But I’ve digressed.

I’m challenging you to think critically about this.

The harder conversation to have is one that takes into consideration all causes and effects. In this case, living for generations on some form of welfare (which our government has specifically encouraged and facilitated in the African-American community since the dawn of the War on Poverty), destroys a person. It becomes, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “a narcotic and a subtle destroyer of the spirit.”

You want to blame white America for this problem? Be my guest — to an extent. After all, was it not largely white progressives who created, promoted, and institutionalized the idea that disadvantage can be addressed through government?

And if you won’t or can’t listen to me on the matter because I’m white, then I’ll defer to Thomas Sowell, who once said of the War on Poverty’s devastating effect, “the black family, which had survived centuries of slavery and discrimination, began rapidly disintegrating in the liberal welfare state that subsidized unwed pregnancy and changed welfare from an emergency rescue to a way of life.”

Dependency breeds a dulled sense of personal accountability, destroys a drive to excel and has a propensity for sending a person into a spiral of frustration, hopelessness and anger. And this isn’t unique to any one race — look at the tragic state of many American Indians in reservation-welfare hell.

It’s this frustration, hopelessness and anger that lead many to believe racism hasn’t made a step since Jim Crow and to use as a justification for illicit behavior.

All that said, let’s momentarily accept the premise that racism is largely to blame.

Morally speaking, does it excuse the crimes that have placed so many in prison?

It’s not a comfortable concept, but no — one form of immorality doesn’t excuse another. And it doesn’t preclude the offender (of any race) from consequence. One’s race does not make a crime any more or less criminal.

As fellow contributor Matt Walsh put it:

No matter how often it happens, it will always boggle my mind that anyone could site these figures about blacks getting shot by cops without even mentioning that a large number of them were engaged in shoot-outs prompted by their decision to commit a crime.

When behavior is excusable because circumstances are unfair — then ultimately, anything goes, and consequences are understandably unjust.

And the vicious circle continues.

Where does it ultimately end? And how could it possibly ever be fixed?

So yes, Black Lives Matter has a point: The African American community is in big trouble. But it’s not a one-dimensional problem.

If you walk away with nothing else from this discussion, walk away with these two things:

First, no matter the problem, no life can be truly valued, protected and improved unless all life is valued on the same level — out loud. Does this mean all problems sit on the same level? Absolutely not — but each and every life does. Double standards (i.e. “white people don’t get to talk about how their lives matter, too”) do not breed solutions — they breed hate, divisiveness and destruction.

Second, and just as important, no wrong can be corrected with another wrong. If hate’s the problem, it’s not solved with more hate. Ever.

“All Lives Matter” (which includes black lives) isn’t thoughtless. It’s not insensitive, naïve, or racist.

It’s vital.


So, What’s Wrong With ‘All Lives Matter,’ Anyway? | TheBlaze.com http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/so-whats-wrong-with-all-lives-matter-anyway/

simply put, its about context

all lives matter is fine on its own

its dismissive as a response to black lives matter


the simplest and funniest explanation I have heard yet is this:

Imagine that you'��re sitting down to dinner with your family, and while everyone else gets a serving of the meal, you don'��t get any. So you say "��I should get my fair share."�� And as a direct response to this, your dad corrects you, saying, "��everyone should get their fair share."�� Now, that'��s a wonderful sentiment ;�� indeed, everyone should, and that was kinda your point in the first place: that you should be a part of everyone, and you should get your fair share also. However, dad'��s smart-*** comment just dismissed you and didn'��t solve the problem that you still haven'��t gotten any!

The problem is that the statement "��I should get my fair share"�� had an implicit "��too"�� at the end: "��I should get my fair share, too, just like everyone else."�� But your dad'��s response treated your statement as though you meant "��only I should get my fair share"��, which clearly was not your intention. As a result, his statement that "��everyone should get their fair share,"�� while true, only served to ignore the problem you were trying to point out.


http://fusion.net/story/170591/the-next-time-someone-says-all-lives-matter-show-them-these-5-paragraphs/
ADVERTISING


black lives matter, is a movement with addressing a specific issue,,

there are millions of such movements in the world, and none are therefore dismissed as being dismissive of any other issue just for existing

the race for breast cancer isn't a movement that seeks to belittle that other cancers need help,, those cancers have their causes and movements TOO

the movement to end child starvation isn't belittling or ignoring or not aware that adults are starving too,, there are millions of other movements and groups which address that as well


black lives matter is a response to the black lives being lost to those paid to PROTECT LIFE, it addresses the relationship between black people and THE POLICE, it also happens to include 'all' lives lost to police because those very numbers are NEEDED to even address the disparity that occurs in that subgroup(those encountering and being killed by police) when it comes to race




that is one issue amongst many,,, that people can choose to address or not,,,

cause all life dont matter
rapist's , child abusers , etc etc etc

and i am a meat eater , so some are just breakfast lunch and dinner

i think all that depends on the definition of "fair" ... if the other child got an extra pea on their plate, is that fair?

It has been proven statistically that cops don't shoot more blacks than expected by the number of crimes the blacks commit. The real problems are that blacks commit more crimes probably due to the large number of broken homes that put them in that mindset.

If black lives really mattered to the ones chanting the chant, the focus would be the thousands of black on black murders due to inner city crime.

The cops are a scapegoat to hide the real causes of the real problems.

just seen this posted in facebook , couldnt resist lol

a 'cause I said so' post

with no verifiable data backing it up

the number of crimes has nothing to do with the disparity amongst CRIMINALS


so even if one group were five times as likely to commit a crime

that means nothing when we are talking about events that happen AFTER the crime is suspected amongst ALL individuals suspected of crime

than we can see a disparity in that group of ALL who are equally 'suspected' of crimes


the police , unlike criminals, are entrusted and PAID to do a service in their community,, that's why people in those communities comment on how they do their job

people EXPECT criminals to commit crime,, that's actually, their 'job'

then i would say life choices matter then, huh... they wanna be criminals, then abide by the choices you made in life... you sell crack on the corner, there's a good chance of being shot by the cops... not real hard, is it?

but a better chance if you are commiting the crime while BLACK

yep,, gotta be BETTER Than if you want to live,,,

not good enough to be 'equal' because the result is not equal for you

There have been TONS of verifiable data backing it up in numerous threads like this one. You just chose to ignore it all. Carry on with the excuses...more and more people just dont care for them anymore.

lol, or I don't have a photographic memory that instantly categorizes and recalls every associated post from,, EVER, that may support a statement in the current thread


as a matter of fact, Im asking special treatment here because TRUST THAT when I leave these threads, whatever was in them is history in my mind and the next day is a new one,,,



if you post it,, it is just as easy to post the verification of it,,,

as it is for the reader to try to recall what they may have seen in some other post at some other point,,,

I don't recall ANY such data that made his point, so since he states it CURRENTLY, I am asking for the clarification CURRENTLY,, as well...

just because they're black... blah, blah, blah... i won't have any sympathy for you or them, just because of all this stupid yacking about how terrible it is to be black...


and yet again, all this yacking about criminals getting killed by police, but again, NOTHING about the innocents that these same criminals are killing...

the great land of America has something called 'innocent until PROVEN guilty' , the police only facilitate the arrest until such guilt is PROVEN

and even when proven, only the crimes of HOMICIDE carry a death penalty

so yeah, I will yack when someone is killed because they didn't follow someones 'commands'

after selling something illegal, or being in a fight with no weapons, or having stolen something,,, etc,, none of these are death penalty offenses and others shouldnt have authority to determine someone has no right to live because of them,,,

again, save the criminals, but let the innocent children die by their rampant bullets...

I remember....


Oh the irony!

How is All Lives Matter dismissive? Now if it were Black Lives Don Matter now that would be dismissive!

all lives matter IN RESPONSE to black lives matter is dismissive

Dismissive: feeling or showing that something is unworthy of consideration.


black lives don't mater IN RESPONSE to black lives matter is CONFRONTATIONAL

confronational: feeling or displaying eagerness to fight



the first statement says, lets disregard your concern because EVERYONE has concerns,,,


the latter says, lets disagree that your concern is correct,,

and yet, its preferred to sit here and be smug and insulting instead of sharing this amazing memory to answer a simple question


smh