Almost immediately after I stepped into a bar last night, I was approached by someone who wanted to tell me about a Fox News segment he recently saw regarding the Black Lives Matter movement. I didn't say much of anything because I could tell he was intoxicated, the two of us were on opposite ends of the political spectrum, and four days following the death of a friend, I was really in no mood to involve myself in a heated argument. So, as I often times do, I just listened, tried understanding his point of view, but in the end, felt he missed the bigger picture.
His major point, as I often times hear with conservatives, was, "Black lives matter? What about black-on-black crime? Blacks are killing other blacks, so why don't these blacks prove that black lives matter by not killing each other?"
He then cleverly looked at the opposing argument, saying, "I got into a heated debate with a black friend of mine, who pointed out white-on-white crime, but there's not a White Lives Matter movement now, is there? I'm not a racist. I have several black friends, but I'm sick and tired of black people pulling out the race card and using it as an excuse for something instead of taking responsibility."
When people make such comments, while they're factually accurate that most black homicide victims were killed by fellow blacks, they're mistaking the Black Lives Matter movement as fully centering around gun violence, police killing unarmed blacks in particular. Yes, the movement may have been prompted by the not guilty verdict of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin, but it's certainly evolved since then. Racism is ingrained at the deepest levels of our country, particularly against African-Americans. From unfair drug laws to mass incarceration to fewer opportunities academically and professionally to racial profiling and beyond, many African-Americans are caught in this virtual prison, regardless of whether or not they've actually been imprisoned. Blacks are more likely than whites to be imprisoned for nonviolent crimes, to receive harsher sentences for identical crimes, have more difficulty finding decent-paying jobs, be less likely to have high quality public education and be less likely to afford a college education, not to mention be more likely to be profiled and killed by police. With all this going against them, it makes things incredibly difficult for many African-American families to break the cycle. Yes, gun violence, gun violence by cops at the expense of unarmed blacks in particular, is incredibly important to the Black Lives Matter movement, but if one focuses solely on that, they miss the bigger picture.
In the Fox News segment my friend told me about (yes, I watched it), Sean Hannity spoke with two conservative African-Americans about the Black Lives Matter movement. They all spoke about a shooting in St. Louis where a black man shot and killed a little girl, and the three of them basically sang in unison, "Black lives matter? What about black-on-black crime? This isn't a race thing. The Black Lives Matter movement and the liberal media made it a race thing. But it's not a race thing; it's a human thing."
Once again, they missed the bigger picture of the Black Lives Matter movement. If they can't see that it is indeed a race (and human) thing, then they come across as rather clueless about the movement. Many conservatives seem to have cherry-picked the one component of the Black Lives Matter movement which they feel a strong counterargument can be made and decided to run with it, ignoring all the other components. However, ignorance and denial cannot equate as fact. Front and center on the Black Lives Matter homepage read these statistics:
- "28 ...hours. Every 28 hours a black man, woman, or child is murdered by police or vigilante law enforcement."
- "25.1 ...percent. An estimated 25.1 percent of black American women live in poverty. This is higher than any other ethnic group."
- "35 ...years. The average life expectancy for a black transgender woman is 35 years."
Those statistics are followed by these words:
"All #BlackLivesMatter. This is Not a Moment, but a Movement
#BlackLivesMatter was created in 2012 after Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman, was acquitted for his crime, and dead 17-year old Trayvon was post-humously placed on trial for his own murder. Rooted in the experiences of Black people in this country who actively resist our de-humanization, #BlackLivesMatter is a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates our society.Black Lives Matter is a unique contribution that goes beyond extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes.
It goes beyond the narrow nationalism that can be prevalent within Black communities, which merely call on Black people to love Black, live Black and buy Black, keeping straight cis Black men in the front of the movement while our sisters, queer and trans and disabled folk take up roles in the background or not at all. Black Lives Matter affirms the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, black-undocumented folks, folks with records, women and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. It centers those that have been marginalized within Black liberation movements. It is a tactic to (re)build the Black liberation movement.
When we say Black Lives Matter, we are broadening the conversation around state violence to include all of the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state. We are talking about the ways in which Black lives are deprived of our basic human rights and dignity. How Black poverty and genocide is state violence. How 2.8 million Black people are locked in cages in this country is state violence. How Black women bearing the burden of a relentless assault on our children and our families is state violence. How Black queer and trans folks bear a unique burden from a hetero-patriarchal society that disposes of us like garbage and simultaneously fetishizes us and profits off of us, and that is state violence. How 500,000 Black people in the US are undocumented immigrants and relegated to the shadows. How Black girls are used as negotiating chips during times of conflict and war. How Black folks living with disabilities and different abilities bear the burden of state sponsored Darwinian experiments that attempt to squeeze us into boxes of normality defined by white supremacy, and that is state violence.
#BlackLivesMatter is working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. We affirm our contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression. We have put our sweat equity and love for Black people into creating a political project–taking the hashtag off of social media and into the streets. The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation."
Like I said, many conservatives appear to be missing the bigger picture with this movement. Why isn't there a White Lives Matter movement? Because we haven't faced this kind of discrimination and oppression, we were the very architects of the deeply ingrained racism of our country, and we haven't felt like our race has been forgotten to the point where we feel the need to yell out "White lives matter!" Conservatives can focus all they'd like on black-on-black crime, but doing so while ignoring the systemic racism in this country at the expense of the African-American community will only continue the cycle. Ironically enough, the systemic racism of this country, originally constructed by whites and currently ignored by most conservatives, is what prompted the Black Lives Matter movement to form in the first place. Perhaps at the next Republican National Convention, conservative politicians and commentators will stand up to the podium and accurately declare, "The Black Lives Matter movement? We built that!"
http://blacklivesmatter.com/about/
His major point, as I often times hear with conservatives, was, "Black lives matter? What about black-on-black crime? Blacks are killing other blacks, so why don't these blacks prove that black lives matter by not killing each other?"
He then cleverly looked at the opposing argument, saying, "I got into a heated debate with a black friend of mine, who pointed out white-on-white crime, but there's not a White Lives Matter movement now, is there? I'm not a racist. I have several black friends, but I'm sick and tired of black people pulling out the race card and using it as an excuse for something instead of taking responsibility."
When people make such comments, while they're factually accurate that most black homicide victims were killed by fellow blacks, they're mistaking the Black Lives Matter movement as fully centering around gun violence, police killing unarmed blacks in particular. Yes, the movement may have been prompted by the not guilty verdict of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin, but it's certainly evolved since then. Racism is ingrained at the deepest levels of our country, particularly against African-Americans. From unfair drug laws to mass incarceration to fewer opportunities academically and professionally to racial profiling and beyond, many African-Americans are caught in this virtual prison, regardless of whether or not they've actually been imprisoned. Blacks are more likely than whites to be imprisoned for nonviolent crimes, to receive harsher sentences for identical crimes, have more difficulty finding decent-paying jobs, be less likely to have high quality public education and be less likely to afford a college education, not to mention be more likely to be profiled and killed by police. With all this going against them, it makes things incredibly difficult for many African-American families to break the cycle. Yes, gun violence, gun violence by cops at the expense of unarmed blacks in particular, is incredibly important to the Black Lives Matter movement, but if one focuses solely on that, they miss the bigger picture.
In the Fox News segment my friend told me about (yes, I watched it), Sean Hannity spoke with two conservative African-Americans about the Black Lives Matter movement. They all spoke about a shooting in St. Louis where a black man shot and killed a little girl, and the three of them basically sang in unison, "Black lives matter? What about black-on-black crime? This isn't a race thing. The Black Lives Matter movement and the liberal media made it a race thing. But it's not a race thing; it's a human thing."
Once again, they missed the bigger picture of the Black Lives Matter movement. If they can't see that it is indeed a race (and human) thing, then they come across as rather clueless about the movement. Many conservatives seem to have cherry-picked the one component of the Black Lives Matter movement which they feel a strong counterargument can be made and decided to run with it, ignoring all the other components. However, ignorance and denial cannot equate as fact. Front and center on the Black Lives Matter homepage read these statistics:
- "28 ...hours. Every 28 hours a black man, woman, or child is murdered by police or vigilante law enforcement."
- "25.1 ...percent. An estimated 25.1 percent of black American women live in poverty. This is higher than any other ethnic group."
- "35 ...years. The average life expectancy for a black transgender woman is 35 years."
Those statistics are followed by these words:
"All #BlackLivesMatter. This is Not a Moment, but a Movement
#BlackLivesMatter was created in 2012 after Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman, was acquitted for his crime, and dead 17-year old Trayvon was post-humously placed on trial for his own murder. Rooted in the experiences of Black people in this country who actively resist our de-humanization, #BlackLivesMatter is a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates our society.Black Lives Matter is a unique contribution that goes beyond extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes.
It goes beyond the narrow nationalism that can be prevalent within Black communities, which merely call on Black people to love Black, live Black and buy Black, keeping straight cis Black men in the front of the movement while our sisters, queer and trans and disabled folk take up roles in the background or not at all. Black Lives Matter affirms the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, black-undocumented folks, folks with records, women and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. It centers those that have been marginalized within Black liberation movements. It is a tactic to (re)build the Black liberation movement.
When we say Black Lives Matter, we are broadening the conversation around state violence to include all of the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state. We are talking about the ways in which Black lives are deprived of our basic human rights and dignity. How Black poverty and genocide is state violence. How 2.8 million Black people are locked in cages in this country is state violence. How Black women bearing the burden of a relentless assault on our children and our families is state violence. How Black queer and trans folks bear a unique burden from a hetero-patriarchal society that disposes of us like garbage and simultaneously fetishizes us and profits off of us, and that is state violence. How 500,000 Black people in the US are undocumented immigrants and relegated to the shadows. How Black girls are used as negotiating chips during times of conflict and war. How Black folks living with disabilities and different abilities bear the burden of state sponsored Darwinian experiments that attempt to squeeze us into boxes of normality defined by white supremacy, and that is state violence.
#BlackLivesMatter is working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. We affirm our contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression. We have put our sweat equity and love for Black people into creating a political project–taking the hashtag off of social media and into the streets. The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation."
Like I said, many conservatives appear to be missing the bigger picture with this movement. Why isn't there a White Lives Matter movement? Because we haven't faced this kind of discrimination and oppression, we were the very architects of the deeply ingrained racism of our country, and we haven't felt like our race has been forgotten to the point where we feel the need to yell out "White lives matter!" Conservatives can focus all they'd like on black-on-black crime, but doing so while ignoring the systemic racism in this country at the expense of the African-American community will only continue the cycle. Ironically enough, the systemic racism of this country, originally constructed by whites and currently ignored by most conservatives, is what prompted the Black Lives Matter movement to form in the first place. Perhaps at the next Republican National Convention, conservative politicians and commentators will stand up to the podium and accurately declare, "The Black Lives Matter movement? We built that!"
http://blacklivesmatter.com/about/
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