Remember those All Lives Matter advocates? You know, those who spoke out in response to Black Lives Matter. Those who felt that it was unfair to single out Black Lives when there were other, non-black lives at risk as well. Those who felt “Black Lives Matter” meant black lives mattered more than others. Those who deliberately declined to see “Black Lives Matter“ as a movement highlighting the demonstrable evidence that black lives do matter less than white lives to the criminal justice system, and instead, formed a competing hashtag as a means of undermining BLM without actually doing anything to support all the other lives they claimed to care about. Yeah those guys. Do you know if they want to carpool to the next travel ban protest to show support for the Muslim lives that are being targeted or will they just meet us there?
Where you at TomiPrompter?
Around the country people of all backgrounds gathered to protest Trump’s executive order to ban travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries entering the U.S. A discriminatory attack on a group of people based on their religious beliefs, something you would think would upset anyone who’s expressed concern for the fair and just treatment of “All Lives” right? So it had me pondering all weekend, where are those righteous souls who thought that every life was so precious that we simply couldn’t afford to focus on just one group of people when so many others were suffering? Do Muslim lives not fall under the All Lives Matter umbrella? Or are they exempt in the small print along with Black lives, Mexican, Gay, Trans, Refugee, or basically everyone who is not White?
Amidst this weekends atrocities we were able to once again reunite the flawed right wing ideology with their best friend hypocrisy when it comes to this despicable saying. All Lives Matter supporters could not give two flying f***s about any other life than theirs or those who look like them. All Lives Matter is not a movement formed to represent all groups regardless of race and ethnicity, it is a not so thinly veiled effort to deflect attention from systemic racism. If they really were for all lives then I must have missed their banners at Standing Rock, or at the rally for immigrants rights, or at the Fight for $15 march, or the women's march, or in the airports this weekend.
The point of “All Lives Matter” has always been to diminish the message that Black Lives Matter or that they should matter more than they do. A message that becomes ever clearer when all we hear are crickets over Trump’s travel ban, or anything that questions a white right wing narrative. So i’m sorry to break it to you but if there is anyone at the airports waiting for an All Lives Matter advocate to come and save the day, you’ve got a better chance of seeing David Duke teaching Hebrew school.
So, in the interest of being honest, maybe now All Lives Matters protesters can drop the pretense and rebrand the movement to represent what they should have been called from the get go. White Lives Matter. Sorry, pardon me, I meant “Only White Lives Matter.”
