Whose life matters?

The SNL sketch thread got me thinking about what people on the board think about the “Black lives matter” campaign. I remember several different late night shows sending people to Trump rallies, and trying to get people to say “Black lives matter,” and they’d always respond “All lives matter.”

So what’s you response if someone says “Black lives matter,” and sticks a microphone in your face?

Nobody’s.

Yeah! black wives matter!

All lives are of high importance. Including the fact that unarmed black people are being shot, Iraqis are dying in Mosul, Koreans are dying in Camp 14, and Filipinos are being killed extra-judicially in Duterte’s regime.

The term was coined in response to the feeling that nobody seemed to care when black people were killed. It’s “black lives matter (too)” not “black lives matter (only).”

I’d say I understood what they were trying to convey and I support them. And while of course “all lives matter,” the reasons for their campaign being necessary, far trumps (argh!) anyone else attempting to circumvent their point.

Black people suffer the most from police killings. All lives matter of course, but the campaign is not denying that by saying BLM.

On the other hand, I just read a local BLM guy’s proposal that police should kill zero people. No, fuck that, they should kill exactly as many people who try to kill them. That number will never, ever, be zero. Clearly exclusionary claims don’t make sense.

Extra lives matter, which is why you should always collect those dragon coins in Super Mario World.

I’d say, “Yes, I agree our lives matter too. I hope one day this is something that doesn’t even have to be said.”

I voted “of course they do”, but I’d actually say “what the hell makes you think that I think they don’t?” Same thing if someone said “blue lives matter” and stuck a mic in my face as if to “challenge” my beliefs.

Exactly and I honestly believe that there are people on the right who are intentionally misunderstanding that point in order to pander to racists in the party. If you recall, they asked during one of the GOP primary debates, “do black lives matter, or do all lives matter?” In an intentional misrepresentation of the BLM movement.

You win the internet for making me chuckle.

My issue with the response “All lives matter” as a response to “Black lives matter” is that, since it is a response, it carries an implicit invalidation of the statement “Black lives matter”. It’s as if there is a silent “No, you’re wrong” being stated.

I somewhat agree with this, but to wax philosophical, communication is meant to convey information. If you come up to me, and tell me personally that “black lives matter”, it carries an implicit invalidation of my belief that they do. Because if I did already believe that, then no communication would be necessary.

Now, not everyone who proclaims the phrase is directing it at me – some are directing it at police departments – but I am addressing the hypothetical in the OP.

How can it be an implicit invalidation, if ‘black lives’ and ‘white lives’ are implicitly subsets of ‘all lives’? Isn’t it an implicit validation, and then some?

“…say it clear?”

I’d agree, but only because I have been slowly educated/conditioned into understanding what BLM means. Of COURSE all lives matter… and as pointed out above the meaning of the slogan is “Black Lives Matter TOO.” So while responding “All Lives Matter” has been turned into the hallmark of a racist Trump supporter or blue-tinted cop apologist, a poor choice of phrasing for the original slogan has undercut its effectiveness by making its ambiguity a (false) touchstone for us/them, black/white, racist/enlightened.

Black LIves Matter. Too.

All Lives Matter is more accurate. Because it includes black lives with Asian, white, Hispanic, and police lives.

It *is *wrong.

Black people in the US are shot by police disproportionately because black people in the US are disproportionately involved in violent crime. Black people get busted for drugs disproportionately because black people tend to live in areas which are high-crime, and therefore have a greater police presence. The rest of the complaints are mostly selective perception, and anecdotal.

But that doesn’t fit on a T-shirt.

Regards,
Shodan

Black Sabbath Matters

Yep.