Yes, all lives matter, but this does not acknowledge the fact that African-American lives fall victim to an institutionalized bias against them.
As a U.S. resident of Asian decent, I could only see the matter from an outside perspective. I agree with the fact that a small number of protesters who demonstrate under the banner of Black Lives Matter have gone into irrational violence.
People would argue that this is not what Martin Luther King Jr. fought for, and indeed it isn’t. But how can one justify the issue that someone’s child, father, friend, colleague, teacher, brother or sister has been executed due to extreme prejudice against the color of their skin? I can only imagine the anger people would be driven to as their identities are labeled as hashtags for social media trends.
Ken E. Nwadike Jr., founder of Free Hugs Project, elaborated the movement of Black Lives Matter by stating, “If people say black lives matter, they’re sending a signal of distress in times of crisis.” He continued by stating, “If I was drowning in an ocean and I’m yelling for your help, because my life matters, are you gonna ignore me because someone who’s relaxing in the sand shouts out all lives matter.”
The All Lives Matter Movement is an ignorant response to counter a societal problem that threatens the liberty of our nation. This counter movement spits at an idea that is dumbfoundedly obvious to this nation, but it denies the validity of the problem that a certain group of people are struggling to have their voices heard.
No, I am not anti-cops. I do not condone violence against them. We need to put ourselves into a mentality that this movement is not meant to be a reason to generate hate. The police for its entirety are public servants who work for the safety of our nation. But we cannot turn a blind eye to the existence of those who fall victim to the institutionalized racism in our judicial system or those who express their grievances and are begging to sustain their right to live.
What a lot of opposers fail to do, is to try to put themselves in the perspective of those afflicted within the movement. If they dare to spout out All Lives Matter with a biased view, then why don’t they try to see what the Black Lives Matter movement is fighting for instead attempting to justify every single potential murder incident. Justifications that claim that those lives lost are resisting arrest, false violent intents and so many more.
Imagine your best friend asking to leave a scene due to the presence of cops in fear of getting shot despite not doing anything wrong. Imagine living through every single day viewed as an enemy of your own home. These people were taken from their homeland, enslaved, categorized as second-class citizens and had to fight for their own humanity for hundreds of years. All they ask ultimately is to stop killing them and to listen.
Image Sources
- black-lives-matter-pro-header: Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/TNS | Used With Permission