Yo, for the #AllLivesMatter people, Black folk can hold multiple emotions at one time. I promise you. I assure you that we as Black folk can despise BOTH police brutality and Black on Black crime. As a fully evolved human, I do possess the ability to host two separate issues in my head at once and for you or any one else to constantly question that is to deny my humanity. It's yet another instance in this country where I am asked to prove my humanity. It's yet another instance where I have to fight for my ability to exist and matter in this country as a Black man.
I'm asking a real question for the #AllLivesMatters people. Like fareal, for real. Do you think that when people say #BlackLivesMatter they feel that no other lives matter as much? I just really want to know. Allow me to add some clarity so that we all may understand each other. Allow me to (yet again) offer insight so some of you don't assume I'm an under-evolved Neanderthal that isn't capable of the same emotional capacity that privileged people possess.
First, Black on Black crime is something that gets worked on by a whole bunch of Black and Brown folk. Actually, take a look at the people you see leading efforts such as #BlackLivesMatter and look at their resumes. A large portion will have professional or volunteer roots in youth programs of some sort. For instance, my career started as a social worker and then I was a program director for a youth focused nonprofit. My purpose was and is to improve the lives of young people. When we work with young people, we know that we are increasing their chances of leading fulfilling lives while decreasing the chances that they both victimize or become victims of Black on Black crime - or any other crime for that matter.
Let me attempt to be empathetic though. Maybe since you don't see the work we do within our community on CNN or Fox News too often maybe that communicates to naysayers that nothing is happening. Allow me to offer a deeper level of insight. Often times, there are conversations that occur only within the Black community. I grew up in a Black household and in that household my mother, father or grandmother would often say, "Family business is family business." What that meant was there were certain things we needed to handle in house because we saw it as our problem. It was an approach to solve the family issue with love because an outsider may not carry the same level of love that we will for each other because they did not grow up in this house, nor do they have to live in it. House guest get to come and go as they please. White privileged people did not grow up Black nor do they have to live as a Black person, word to Rachel Dolezal. Whether you agree or disagree with that, it's a reality. With that being said, I assure you that Black folk as a whole care about Black lives being taken despite the vehicle it is taken in.
When people scream #AllLivesMatter after someone says #BlackLivesMatter it's disrespectful. Plain and simple. It forces Black folk, nah, it forces ME to have to justify my value. We are in the day and age where privileged people will find all of the reasons in the world why Mike Brown deserved to be killed and left in the streets but will turn into super sleuths and hunt down the person that killed a lion in Africa. (I'm carrying a big tree with enough shade for everyone, it's been that kind of year.) That's what I've been reduced to, a life less valuable than an animal that most of you have never even seen in person. That's how valueless my life is here. Now before the #AllLionsMatter folks come for me, I'm not condoning killing endangered animals and the fact that I even need to say that is the problem. It is disrespectful and people wonder why some Black folk (ahem, me) seemingly walk around mad all the time. Well, now it's mad and tired. Really really tired. However, I have enough left in the tank to further break down this issue in hopes that at least one person hear it and understand it.
The #AllLivesMatter people have become the lifeblood of the anti-movement. They've become a meal for the status quo to feed on to build strength every time we even attempt to strike a blow. These people help fuel the audacity of the white college student that questioned the validity of of my personal experience with racial profiling some 12 years ago. It fuels the audacity and acceptance of putting murdered Black folk on trial in lieu of investigating the owner of the finger that pulled the state-sanctioned trigger that murdered that specific and precious Black lives in a current and ongoing manner.
So here are some takeaways. (1) Understand that it's never okay to assume that Black folk can't despise Black on Black crime just because we say #BlackLivesMatter. To do so is to deny us our humanity. (2) Understand that there may be some conversations that Black folk have that you may not be part of. It happens, accept it. Everything isn't about you or for you. Finally, (3) I'm going to need for people to understand that by feeding into the #AllLivesMatter narrative that you are doing damage and helping perpetuate the erasure of Black dignity. You have to understand that every time a Black person is killed at the hands of the State and then systematically put on trial it breaks another brick of our collective stateliness. Just know that when you tear down that wall of dignity there will be nothing to hold Black folk back from taking the justice that is constantly denied to us.
#BlackLivesMatter
-Cole Out