Please, let's stop telling black people that "all lives matter"

Dear non-black people who stumble upon this post!

I’d like to give you just one way of many in which you can help out black people in your life right now. I've seen too many people talk about how "all lives matter", and even more importantly, I've seen too many black people who have to spend their energy and emotional resources on educating these people. We can step in and take over some of that work!

And if you're one of the people who is not convinced about why saying "all lives matter" is detrimental to reaching equality, please read on. I'll explain.

Imagine that your house is on fire. Imagine that you’re calling for help. A person living across the street walks over to you, asking what’s wrong. Obviously, they want to help. You tell them: “My children are still inside!” Your neighbour looks at you and replies: “Well, my children are inside my house, too.” You look across the street. Their house isn’t on fire.

How would you feel if your neighbour told you, they’d love to help with your house fire, but you not acknowledging that they have children, too, is just making it a little difficult to see your point as you keep pointing at your own house on fire.

How would you feel at that answer? Confused? Baffled? Would you feel like it’s a helpful answer in any way? Of course, you wouldn't.

You know where I’m going with this. But it’s important that you read on.

Because what you just imagined how it would feel to be told that in a crisis situation, is exactly how black people feel like when others say "all lives matter" or tell them that the movement would be less alienating, if they called it “Black Lives Matter, Too” instead. 

Saying “all lives matter” ignores the fact that at present, black lives are treated like they don’t matter. “All lives” can't matter until black lives do. Saying “Black Lives Matter” draws attention to the uncomfortable truth that some of us, black people, are not treated as just as valuable lives. Saying “all lives matter” sweeps this under the rug. Saying “Black Lives Matter” draws out a truth that we, as a global society, are not fulfilling in reality: that black lives are valuable.

Imagine having to deal with the tremendous grief black people have been dealing with these past weeks (months, decades, centuries). Imagine having to engage with well-meaning people telling them that all lives matter on top of all that.

Let’s do our best and remove at least this work from the shoulders of black people in our lives, when we see it happening. Let’s engage with such comments and educate, so that they don’t have to, both online and offline.

Thank you for reading! 

#BlackLivesMatter