All Lives Matter

Black. White. Pink. Brown. We all have different coloured skin, depending on where we're from, our family history, who our relatives are, etc. etc. We all have different coloured eyes, different coloured hair, different sized feet, different weights. We're all the same thing, a human being with a brain and a heart, we're all the same on the inside. Just on the outside, we all look different. 

So it's kind of ridiculous that we are still judging people in the worst kind of ways for being different, for looking different? Particularly for having different coloured skin. I think you know what I'm getting at here. I'm getting at the current issue Black Lives Matter. 

I've written about it before and I will continue to write about it so that people don't try to brush this under the carpet and forget about it. Racism towards black people- particularly towards black people in America- is alive and well and seems to be rewinding right back to the way things were in the early to mid 1900's. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we heard that America were reintroducing segregation at the rate things are going. 

But I'm not here to retell you all of the things that are going on. Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know it all already. I'm here to talk about the specific trend Black Lives Matter.

We've all seen it on Twitter, on Instagram and on Facebook. And we've all seen hundreds of thousands of non black people respond to this trend:

"But what about white people? Don't our lives matter"

"Surely ALL lives matter"

"#AllLivesMatter"

"#WhiteLivesMatter"

These four tweets are taken directly from Twitter, although I have left out the names for privacy reasons, but they were not alone in their thoughts. Hundreds and hundreds of people had joined in, sharing these views. 

Now, I kind of understand why people are saying "All lives matter", because of course, yes, all lives matter. But the point here is, if all lives matter, why are black people still being targeted by white people? Why are black people still being shot by police in situations where white people are not? Why are black people still being oppressed? I saw a quote from the Huffington Post that summed it up perfectly:

Now, this is very true. Because if all lives did matter, there would be no need for the black lives matter trend in the first place, would there? Of course, there is still an issue with this quote, because other people are being oppressed to- such as Asian Muslims (or most people of the Islamic faith for that matter) who are branded "terrorists" and all painted with the same brush every time ISIS make an attack on the world. People from other "third world" countries are oppressed by white people when they are in need of aid, or help, of refugee from their own country. 

Effectively, the problem is...well, white people. We are so blinded by our own privilege that we seem to have allowed it to intoxicate us and treat anyone who isn't white with little to no respect. Now of course, that is a sweeping generalisation. I know plenty of white people who support movements like Black Lives Matter, who support refugees, who are anything but racist or blind to their white privilege. But there are plenty of white people who are blind to their privilege, which of course, I have another great quote for:

Most white people, they don't think they have privilege. And that's because it's invisible to them. They don't understand the privilege they have, because they never haven't had it. To them, it's just ordinary life. But if you changed their skin colour for a day, they'd realise just how much easier their life was when they were white. In America, they wouldn't have to fear being shot by a policeman who "didn't know" why he did what he did. In England, you wouldn't have to worry about your four year old Asian daughter being branded a terrorist and having fake dog poo rubbed in her face by a full grown white man thanks to ISIS attacks (yes, that really did happen earlier on this week). 

As a white person, statistics show you're more likely to get a job over a person of colour. You're more likely to get into universities than a person of colour. In America, grade boundaries to certain colleges are actually dropped for white people, so that people of colour have to work harder to gain entry to college! As a white person, you won't ever be called a "nigger" or a "paki". You won't ever have a derogatory name thrown at you simply for walking down the street. You won't have your culture laughed at and then appropriated by a more "accepted" culture. As a white person, you will have the easiest life in the world. 

Of course, not all black people are perfect. We have all seen the videos of people taking Black Lives Matter to extremes and begin to attack white people, killing police officers and so on. But as with all movements, there are always extremists who let the side down. You can look at feminism for a prime example of that. 

But generally speaking, Black Lives Matter is needed. We need to stop using our white privilege against people who aren't white. Our pale skin colour does not make us a prestige race, and I just don't understand why people think it does. As I said at the start of this post, we are all the same. We are all humans. So why do we treat some people like they are less than that? 

Black Lives Matter, and yes, all lives truly do matter. But when it comes down to it, all lives can't matter until every oppressed person of colour's life matters too. All Lives Matter exists with the idea that white people aren't oppressed against. But we don't face oppression anyway- and that makes All Lives Matter pretty obsolete. 

Let's focus on treating everyone who isn't a westernized white person with the same love and respect that westernized white people show each other and then maybe one day, all lives will matter. 

Love from,

Florence Grace