Why You Shouldn’t Say ALL LIVES MATTER

Only the modern divided world would find recourse to complain about BLACK LIVES MATTER as a statement of impact, inviting us to revisit our thinking and outlook on a long, complex and fragmented racial inequality problem. And when people reply with ALL LIVES MATTER, they show their true IQ and EQ, trying to process this complex problem simplistically.

It’s patronising, damaging and polarising. The world needs unity.

This knee jerk reaction comes from privilege and at worst, entitlement, from those who have never struggled because of what they look like or where they came from, and have never felt elitist and superior conceits against them.

It comes across as if they are unhappy they’re not the centre of attention all the time, that they are somehow getting a tough end of the deal also. We don’t need to put our own fucking label on everything and own it. ITS NOT ABOUT YOU.

BLACK LIVES MATTERS is not an aggressive subjective confrontation against the ‘rest’. It’s a movement for social change and asks only that we consider the historical storyline.

NO ONE ever said BLACK LIVES MATTER MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE – no matter how well intentioned and heartfelt ALL LIVES MATTERS is, its obviousness is deafening. We know ALL LIVES MATTER, but do some really, really believe ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER. Of course not. We know that there are some, not all, who don’t value black lives, and that there are some, not all, who go out of their way to diminish the beauty of human life for black people. FACT. This isn’t a rumour, its evidenced fact. The statistics are there to find.

Saying ALL LIVES MATTER is attention seeking and indulgent. Don’t say it.

Think of this: you would not go to a prostate cancer charity party, buy a beer and start shouting ALL CANCERS MATTER, now would you?

This statement is worsened by the fact that the UK is not the USA. The UK does not have poverty like the USA, and the UK does not have guns on the streets which are the perpetual trigger, excuse the pun, and which makes this abhorrent violent cycle so pronounced and profound.

Do you know how many black men were shot dead by police in the UK last year? NONE. Fucking none! Do you know how man black men were shot dead by police in the USA? 319! yes, that’s right 319, a number almost impossible to fathom.

In order to understand the dichotomy that exists between the wealth and superpower stratus of the USA, and a complete failed social equality experiment, like all problems you have to peel it back to its beginnings.

The USA has not healed from decades of injustice and forced apartheid. It has not properly apologised for its appalling treatment of black people for its subjugation and bondage. But more important than this, is the lack of welfare state, and the ease in which young black men can acquire handguns. The sheer number of which is ludicrous.

There are 200m handgun in the US, all manufactured by white-owned, private equity gun companies. Many black-held illegal handguns, are stolen from private licensed residencies; the white owners then buy more guns, replacing those stolen from cars and houses which have fallen into 12-year-old and younger black males’ hands.

When you have a society, poor and badly educated, running amok with handguns as a methodology to acquire cash to live with because there is no ‘dole’, no ‘welfare’ handouts, then you have a seriously big problem.

These guns end up being used against the police forces, who are charged with protecting public and property, and are often badly paid, poorly trained and angry. Angry at being shot at all fucking year, angry that their friends die in shoot outs that resemble Afghan compounds in Helmand. Angry that no one is solving this complex problem with investment and education for young black males, and laws that take guns off the streets. White is turned against black, poverty against wealth, gun against gun, all in the name of a ludicrous archaic protection of a right to bear arms, and company profits.

So, before you start condemning all white cops, think of this: when Derek Chauvin went to work that day, did he really set out to kneel on a man’s neck and kill him? Of course not. Was he poorly trained? Yes. Was he a part of a broken system of an environment of violence, black men running around shooting at him, risks to his life daily? Of course he was. Was he appallingly overly aggressive? YES. And his use of restraint a testament to his environment, upbringing, training and ground truthing? YES.

And inasmuch as the tragedy of watching Floyd die, begging for his mama, was heart-breaking to see, until we solve the gun issue, and take leadership and ownership of the inequality, train the police – teach them soft diplomacy skills – take the handguns off the streets, make corporate America accountable for this mass manslaughter and invest in young black males’ education…it will continue. Mass shootings will continue, poor black males will die in their hundreds, hardworking white cops will die in their hundreds, and America will be divided and continue to cry.