If you are actually interested in an answer, I can try to explain. Think of the black experience in America (police brutality, institutionalized racism etc) as a house that’s on fire. Imagine it’s your house, and you call the fire dept and you tell them “hey my house is on fire i need help!” and instead of helping they say “why is your house special in particular? All houses are important so why should we devote resources just to yours!” It’d be pretty stupid. Of course all houses should matter, but there’s one in particular right now that needs special attention and help. That’s all black lives matter means; it’s saying hey this group in particular needs our help and we’re calling attention to it.
I know it’s not a perfect metaphor but hopefully you get the idea. It admittedly is not the best messaging because without some context and critical thinking it seems exclusionary. Really the inplication of the phrase is “black lives matter (as much as white lives)” or even just “black lives matter (too)”. But neither of those are as snappy as slogans so they wouldn’t have worked. It’s the same way the feminism is about gender equality, not putting women above men.
Consider also that “all lives matter” doesn’t exist in a vacuum but instead came about as a response to people saying blm. At best “all lives matter” is a completely unhelpful response from people who completely miss the point of saying blm, but for a lot of bigots out there it’s intentional misappropriation of the phrase meant convey to black people that they should just shut the fuck up and accept the status quo. So it’s a red flag because the people who typically say it are either racists or ignorant of black struggle. “All lives matter” is often times a dogwhistle for the alt-right.
Imagine you go to a pot luck. You spend some time on your dish, and bring your slow cooker. You end up near the back of the food line. By the time that you make it all the way to the front, the food is all completely gone. You realize that some people have taken two, three, four plates. Some of those same people didn’t even bring a dish of their own. And they’ve loudly stated that they won’t be able to eat all of the food they got.
You say to the group “hey, I deserve some food.” They turn to you, and with a tone of derision reply “we all deserve some food.”
If you are actually interested in an answer, I can try to explain. Think of the black experience in America (police brutality, institutionalized racism etc) as a house that’s on fire. Imagine it’s your house, and you call the fire dept and you tell them “hey my house is on fire i need help!” and instead of helping they say “why is your house special in particular? All houses are important so why should we devote resources just to yours!” It’d be pretty stupid. Of course all houses should matter, but there’s one in particular right now that needs special attention and help. That’s all black lives matter means; it’s saying hey this group in particular needs our help and we’re calling attention to it.
I know it’s not a perfect metaphor but hopefully you get the idea. It admittedly is not the best messaging because without some context and critical thinking it seems exclusionary. Really the inplication of the phrase is “black lives matter (as much as white lives)” or even just “black lives matter (too)”. But neither of those are as snappy as slogans so they wouldn’t have worked. It’s the same way the feminism is about gender equality, not putting women above men.
Consider also that “all lives matter” doesn’t exist in a vacuum but instead came about as a response to people saying blm. At best “all lives matter” is a completely unhelpful response from people who completely miss the point of saying blm, but for a lot of bigots out there it’s intentional misappropriation of the phrase meant convey to black people that they should just shut the fuck up and accept the status quo. So it’s a red flag because the people who typically say it are either racists or ignorant of black struggle. “All lives matter” is often times a dogwhistle for the alt-right.
Imagine you go to a pot luck. You spend some time on your dish, and bring your slow cooker. You end up near the back of the food line. By the time that you make it all the way to the front, the food is all completely gone. You realize that some people have taken two, three, four plates. Some of those same people didn’t even bring a dish of their own. And they’ve loudly stated that they won’t be able to eat all of the food they got.
You say to the group “hey, I deserve some food.” They turn to you, and with a tone of derision reply “we all deserve some food.”
Imagine you’re hanging out these two girls but you only have one cup