Dimension 7

Absolutely all lives matter. You are completely correct in your statement. The problem is, not everyone believes that.

I read an analogy the other day that makes a lot of sense.

If a good friend comes to you and tells you how his parents just died, he’s really upset and crying, do you respond with, “all parents die.”?

Probably not.

Why not?

Because, while it’s absolutely true that all parents do die, it’s really hurtful and uncaring to say that.

In the same way, unless you can point to where police are killing unarmed white people for no valid reason, saying all lives matter in response is really mean spirited and uncaring. It’s absolutely a fact that all lives matter. But black lives are lost today and have been for centuries in the US and elsewhere because some people don’t believe all lives matter.

Black lives matter every bit as much as any other life. The issue is our collective actions do not reflect that all lives matter.

I suspect you are of the opinion we should ignore race. We should refer the the killing of George Floyd as “a cop killed someone by kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes.”

That theory has been around as long as race relations have been a thing. I understand it, recognize we’ve been using that for a very long time, and it’s not working. What it does is gives racists a place to hide.

If you aren’t working to eliminate racism, you are complacent. Complacency is consent. Consent is advocacy.