Blog: Why is "All Lives Matter" Offensive?

What's wrong with saying "All Lives Matter," instead of "Black Lives Matter?" Why is it offensive?

As a white person, I didn't understand this a couple of years ago.  I almost needed to step outside of myself, my life, my experience, and really try to understand why the difference is so important.  I think we all need to consciously try to walk in the shoes of a person of colour.  We need to make an effort to know some of the history behind its importance.  I would be remiss if I said I completely understand because it is impossible for a white person to fully understand or appreciate the statement, "Black Lives Matter."  I will never have to experience systematic racism.  I'll never have to fear for my life when seeing a police officer.  I will never be pulled over by the police because of the colour of my skin.  

The closest thing I can think of is from when I was a teenager.  I was taking the bus home from school and I sat across from a elderly lady.  When I smiled at her, she pulled her purse closer to herself as if my intentions were to mug her or something.  I was a little offended by this but as a teenager I didn't take it too seriously.  That experience never happened to me before that moment and has never happened since. Now I know that experience pales in comparison but it is the closest thing I can think of from my life that comes anywhere near the same experience a person of colour.  If I think of that and consider that happening once a day or perhaps multiple times a day, it will still be impossible for me to fully understand.  

Its not a good thing that when you see the slogan "Black Lives Matter," you automatically think, "What about me?  Doesn't my life matter too?"  Of course your life matters, you idiot.  This isn't about you or me.  Stop being so wrapped up in yourself and your own life that you can't try to relate to someone else's.  Julia Craven says the following in an article she wrote for the Huffington Post:

Non-black kids aren’t being killed like black kids are. Of course I’d be just as pissed if cops were gunning down white kids. Duh, but they aren’t. White assailants can litter movie theaters and bodies with bullets from automatic weapons and be apprehended alive but black kids can’t jaywalk or have toy guns in open carry states? 

There is seemingly no justice for Black life in America. An unarmed Black body can be gunned down without sufficient reasoning and left in the middle of the street on display for hours — just like victims of lynching.

Strange fruit still hangs from our nations poplar trees. Lynching underwent a technological revolution. It evolved from nooses to guns and broken necks to bullet wounds.

Will Sutton, in an article he wrote for nola.com, says:

Phrases and slogans like these aren’t the entire message; they’re a means of getting attention and making us think more deeply about what’s behind the words. That’s why All Lives Matter is not cool. It’s hollow, meaningless — and it’s an ugly, intentional slap at Black Lives Matter by those who don’t know better and those who don’t accept us for us.

Source: https://www.vox.com/2016/7/11/12136140/black-all-lives-matter 

To quote Billie Eilish on the matter:

Stop making it about yourselves. You are not in need. You are not in danger...