BLM vs. ALM Controversy Over.
How one adverb destroys an entire counter-argument.
This will be brief because it is a topic that was never up for debate. There seems to be a belief that the phrase “black lives matter” excludes all other classified cultures and races. Let’s get to the point.
The reason we have to chant “black lives matter” is because, for many people and groups, they simply do not. Names of these groups are irrelevant, just like their belief that the phrase “all lives matter” is a counter-argument. We have to proclaim “black lives matter” to ensure minority inclusion in the value of life. What is being said is “black lives matter, too.”
Slavery set a precedent that an entire race and culture did not count as living humans, but rather property and objects.
What’s this? What’s your argument against “black lives matter, too”? There’s time to wait. Let’s pause…Nothing? Right. If a simple adverb can destroy your entire counter-argument or any hopes of rebuttal, then you’ve lost. The BLM movement is to exclaim that minority lives matter too. It wouldn’t have begun if the topic wasn't already in question. We don't have to blast into the past to uncover why this is an issue, but why not?
Slavery set a precedent that an entire race and culture did not count as living humans, but rather property and objects. Through this duration in time, black lives certainly didn’t matter to the majority because we weren’t counted as humans. Let’s hop forward in time.
Zoom forward after slavery has ended, and we’ll land in the era of the Jim Crow laws. This was an effort for the majority, white Americans, to ensure that segregation was sustained and that black lives remained as meaningless as possible. Still don’t see a need to profess that black lives matter too? Let’s bring it home to the now infamous year of 2020.
Your only rebuttal is that all lives matter?
If you looked at a news outlet that reports events with facts or even just glanced at social media, you saw the riots and protests stemming from the slaying of George Floyd. I begin this paragraph with this allusion to news outlets because there were many who did not know what began the protests surrounding George Floyd and racial injustice. The outlets they watched simply reported that BLM activists were rioting with no context regarding why. This is not an exaggeration. In fact, I was appalled when someone asked on social media on the day the protests began, “Why are they rioting? What’s going on?” The person posting had no idea that someone had died at the hands of a police officer, the video had been released, and had sparked outrage. In fact, it sparked a breaking point. It also reminded me that we should always be seeking truth and multiple sources for our information.
Here we are at the precipice of 2021, after years of being treated worthless, and we continue to proclaim that black lives indeed do matter. Your only rebuttal is that all lives matter? That’s it? Well isn’t that wonderful. That’s the exact point that we have been trying to make also. In the grand scope of humanity, after years of being systematically oppressed, misrepresented, experimented upon, and hated, we feel that all lives matter also, including black lives. So as we try to force the inclusion of black lives into your stubborn sightlines, perhaps this will help clarify and finally make you understand what we have been trying to say: black lives matter, too.
