Why Saying “All Lives Matter” Is a Problem

Seven years have passed since Alicia Garza, Patrice Kallors and Opal Tometi formed the Black Lives Matter movement and organization in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman. Hearing this slogan, some people wondered, “But don’t all lives matter?” For example, if the goal is equality, why do people single out one particular race? Let’s take a look.

At first, politicians across the political spectrum used the phrase “all life matters”. Although this is generally favored by Republicans like Senator Tim Scott and Senator Rand Paul . Hillary Clinton used this phrase when addressing the black church in 2015 (and received backlash). In the same year, Mayor Pete Buttidzic said this during a speech. Now, five years later, there is a better understanding of the context of the words “Black lives matter” rather than “All lives matter,” but many still have questions about the actual meaning of these slogans. If you fall into this category, here’s some background and context.

How did Black Lives Matter start?

As we mentioned above, the Black Lives Matter organization and movement was founded in 2013 by three activists seeking to highlight the disproportionate impact of police brutality on the black community. This is how the organization describes itself:

The Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK and Canada whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and strengthen local government to intervene in the violence inflicted on black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering violent acts, creating space for black fantasies and innovation, and focusing on the joys of black people, we are making immediate improvements in our lives.

And there is no shortage of statistics illustrating racial differences when it comes to police violence. For example, a 2019 study by the Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice found that in the United States, blacks are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by the police than whites. Using verified data on police killings from 2013 to 2018, the researchers found that approximately one in 1,000 black boys and men would be killed by the police in their lifetime, compared with 39 out of 100,000 white boys and men.

From a purely numerical standpoint, the fact that the police kill many more blacks than whites means that, in this context, it might appear that the lives of blacks do not matter as much as the lives of whites.

But don’t all lives matter?

When Black Lives Matter first entered our vocabulary, there was some confusion as to what exactly that meant. Some people have heard the phrase “Black lives matter” and interpreted it as “Black life is more important than any other life.” This will be accompanied by additional questions like, “But doesn’t the life of the Latins matter? What about Asian lives? How about Catholic life? “While these are the right questions, they are not discussed when people say,” Black lives matter. “

Here’s some backstory for Vox’s Herman Lopez:

But Black Lives Matter is not about assuming that black lives should be or are more important than all other lives. Instead, he simply points out that the lives of black people in the United States are relatively underestimated and more likely to be stopped by the police, and the country needs to recognize this inequality in order to end it.

In the same key, as President Barack Obama explained in 2015, all lives have a meaning, but in this particular context (using “All Lives Matter” in response to “Black Lives Matter”) that skips the point:

I think everyone understands that all lives matter. I think the reason the organizers used the phrase “Black lives matter” was not because they assumed that no one’s life mattered. Rather, they assumed that there was a specific problem going on in the African American community that was not found in other communities. And this is a legitimate problem that we must solve.

So why is saying “All lives matter” is a problem?

So if all lives really matter, why is using this phrase problematic? To better understand this, let’s talk to Garza, one of the three founders of the Black Lives Matter movement. She broke this at a 2016 event at Portland State University :

We believe that all lives matter. But we do not live in a world where all lives are important, so this reaction really demonstrates the very problems that we are trying to solve. There is a part of our country that believes that people suffer from a lack of personal initiative. Then there are tons of people who say, “Yes, it’s not that I’m lazy. The thing is, my community infrastructure is crumbling. The fact is that I cannot drive down the street without being harassed and persecuted by law enforcement agencies. “

Some useful analogies

Here are some examples of analogies for why people say “Black lives matter” instead of “All lives matter” to give a fresh perspective on the overall concept.

House on fire

In this thought experiment, someone’s house is on fire and they call 911. When the firefighters show up, their neighbors ask, “What about our houses?” although their houses don’t really burn. Let Twitter user @ J1TEAGEGE explain :

All numbers matter

A group of filmmaker activists called House of Peace created this video using the analogy of having dinner in a restaurant where one person does not get what they ordered or something similar to what the rest of the group is served.

Emergency room visit

Here’s an example from an article by Rachel Kargl at Harper’s Bazaar :

If a patient who was rushed to the emergency room after an accident had to point to his crippled leg and say, “This is what matters now,” and the doctor saw abrasions and bruises in other areas and objected, “But all of you are important. , ”Wouldn’t the question arise as to why he has not shown urgency in helping those most at risk? cares, the whole system wins. For some reason, the white American community would prefer to adjust the blinders they have set against racism rather than counter it so that the country can move forward towards a true nation of justice for all.

In a country built on colonizing land and bodies, the default setting has always been that the lives of people of color are not as valuable as the lives of white people. The claim that “black lives matter” simply asks people to rethink this principle of white supremacy and accept that black people should not be disproportionately killed by law enforcement because of their skin color.

Looking for ways to protect black lives? Check out this list of resources .