All Lives Matter: How to be racist in 2017

| Staff Writer

Yes, I mean that people are still racist in 2017. I believe this with every atom of my black body. I believe this from my 24 years of being a black man in the United States living primarily in cities where the Department of Justice has authored reports of over 100 pages detailing the constitutional violations by police departments, primarily directed towards people who look like me (Shout-out to Chicago, St. Louis, and Baltimore). No one has been stupid enough to call me any racial slur to my face, but they have used the Southern Strategy (Jim Crow 3.0) to change their words like spraying Axe on their racist funk. Their arsenal is fully stocked with classic hits like “thug,” “criminal” and, of course, “urban.” A new trend emblematic of All Lives Matter that recently popped up is white girls thinking they “discovered” Bantu knots and braids. I hear this more and more from students at Washington University as protests continue for black Americans that are slaughtered by law enforcement. In order to still walk this campus without believing those who lack melanin value my life less than a piece of colored cloth, I choose to think that the compulsion to say this phrase is born of ignorance rather than of malicious intent.

What does Black Lives Matter even mean? Simply put, black Americans want to make America see that no matter how many statues of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. you put up, there remains a systematic effort to oppress minorities in this country—minorities like blacks, Latinx, Asians, women and LGBTQIA*, along with people suffering from mental illness or living in impoverished communities and immigrants. So, why not “Minority Lives Matter”? Because, unfortunately, members of the black community are repeatedly thrust into leadership roles in the fight for equality, whether they want them or not. Affirmative action, the set of policies enacted to make it possible to more effectively close the inequality gap, largely benefits white men and women, yet every few years someone challenges affirmative action because they believe any form of rejection is unfair and systematic. Black Lives Matter is a movement that does not wish to exclude anyone. The goal is to raise the basic treatment and respect afforded to all Americans by bringing attention to the situations the most oppressed go through on a daily basis.

Now that you know a very brief explanation of what Black Lives Matter means, why is it that when you say “All Lives Matter,” it cuts as deep as a police officer saying, “I’m going to kill this motherf—–”? If you say “All Lives Matter,” doesn’t that automatically include “Black Lives”? No, actually. It doesn’t. It dismisses the more pressing and serious issue by generalizing and creating an overarching sentiment. It would be like if a woman said, “Women shouldn’t have to face domestic abuse and the potential for sexual assault every time they walk out of their door,” and a man responded, “No one should be domestically abused or face sexual assault.” See what happened? A very real and pressing issue is thrown to the side because the other party lacks the empathy to feel the real anxiety and fear that the first person faces. If I am telling you my life matters as much as everyone else’s, saying I’m wrong makes me less than human. It shows me that if possible, you would say things like “economic anxiety,” “America is for Americans” and, of course, “All Lives Matter”.

I cannot begin to explore the long and complex history of what it means to be black in America. I have my own experience, those three black people in your class have their own experience and every person in the African diaspora has their own experience. Ask a question to a room of 10 black people, and you’ll get 10 different answers—until you ask if they believe there are difficulties that come along with being black. Helping correct the current chaotic direction the world going in is hard and will require sacrifice from every group. Even if equality is achieved, staying vigilant remains necessary to make sure these evils don’t reappear after we become complacent (Who would have thought Nazis would be in fashion this season?). So, for those who still aren’t convinced, I want you to do what one of your best rappers says in his one-hit wonder: “Stop, collaborate and listen.”

Sign up for the email edition

Stay up to date with everything happening at Washington University and beyond.

Subscribe