A statement · 9:21pm Jun 6th, 2020
Black Lives matter. Yes, Iisaw, Aragon, Tumbleweed, currently myself, and many, many others are just some of the latest in a very long line of people announcing the same thing to the world, but only because it needs to be said. It needs to be said until everyone accepts it as the truth that it is, that it should already be.
That fact, in and of itself, is however a tragedy. The fact that any phrase with the words "lives matter" needs to be said is a tragedy. As a group of thinking and emoting beings, any system that we put in place that doesn't inherently instill at a nearly instinctual level the basic, inviolate sanctity of the lives of our fellow people, is at best failing, or at worst has already failed. The fact that such a system also has led to the fact that a people have been singled out as targets based on something as literally skin deep as the shade of skin they have is even more horrifying on top of the initial failing. The idea that any person could be less valuable than another is utterly repugnant, and anyone who attempts to further such ideas, even as a 'joke' as many seem to think this situation is, should be viewed as equally repugnant.
Unfortunately such people exist, and it's because of this that I agree with Scratchpad about the phrase that so many good people are rallying under being decried as being an 'exclusive' title, because of the people who want to use anything they can grab to enforce an "Us vs. Them" mentality in the people at large, despite that not being the point of the phrase or the movement at all. I come from a very conservative family, I've SEEN people try and label the phrase "Black Lives Matter" as a 'segregationist' phrase. I've seen people argue that "If it was really about civil rights it would be ALL lives matter." Invariably those people are attempting to justify the vilifying of people attempting to stand up for themselves, their family, and for justice to be restored in a fundamentally flawed system. A system that silent negligence helped come about just as much, if not more than, those who actively sought to profit off of the subjugation or scapegoating of their fellow man. All so they don't have to question if they are in the wrong, if perhaps they need to put in the effort to be a better human being, or even worse, all so they can keep profiting off of the misery and pain of others.
Yes, all lives matter, however that statement can't be true unless you wholeheartedly believe that Black Lives Matter. We have a duty to stand up for the rights and lives of our fellow man, and our fellow man is under attack right now. A specific group is under attack. So we should all stand up for them, crying out to those that refuse to grow up, to be functioning, thinking, emoting human beings.
Let no one forget, let no one deny, let no one refute:
Black Lives Matter.
