SEPTEMBER 11 ― A hashtag which has become as divisive as it has become popular. I happened to be in a room where this was being discussed on a conservative news channel, although whether or not it was being discussed or just minimised and discounted as a legitimate movement is debatable.
The thing is, the #blacklivesmatter movement makes me angry.
That there is even a need to clarify that black lives matter is incredulous to me. How, in the world that we live where we can put a spacecraft on Mars, have internet in the middle of Africa, have computers and/or phones in most homes, how is it that we have advanced so far as humanity and yet have to have a hashtag that clarifies that black lives matter.
I don’t really think that this movement is going to make much difference either. The reality is that to those of us who know and believe black lives matter, we are only affirming it. Perhaps we are standing up and saying it with unity, but I feel like most of us who care about “black lives” have always affirmed this. We didn’t need a hashtag.
And for the rest, they are just fighting saying that it is ridiculous, because after all, all lives matter.
Well duh, you know what, none of us ever said all lives didn’t matter. I don’t think anyone who has used this hashtag has said “Only black lives matter,” because few to no one thinks that.
Black lives matter. White lives matter. Purple lives matter. No matter what colour is on this thing we have called skin, you matter.
And I can say it till I’m blue in the face, and my life will still matter, but I think you aren’t going to listen to me. If you have been one of the ones who have scoffed at this movement, you are probably not going to listen to me when I talk about this.
The reality is that there is a need, worldwide, for there to be an affirmation that black lives do indeed matter. In nearly every part of the world there is an association with dark skinned people and inferiority. Don’t believe me? Let me point out a few observations.
Throughout greater Asia, bleach and skin whitening products are coveted and used by nearly every woman. Most Asian women fear the sun more than they do unhealthy foods. The whiter you are, the more beautiful you are considered, and darker skinned people are associated with hard labour, lack of education, and second rate heritage.
Throughout India there are campaigns which specifically talk about dark skinned beauty, as the same feelings toward dark skin reigns in India. In school, dark skinned students are routinely ridiculed by fellow classmates and teachers alike. The stigma in society of being dark skinned leaves children and adults alike feeling like second class citizens.
In Africa, where the majority by far have black or dark brown skin, white skinned people are regarded as first-class citizens. In almost all cases, a white skinned person will receive far more respect during any business transaction, any medical procedure or any life event.
And in America, whether we like it or not, we are divided by race and racial issues. It is true, there is a higher crime rate and a higher imprisonment rate within black communities in the US. To act like this is not a result of years and years of forced servitude, prejudice, fatherless families secondary to slavery and segregation; is ignorance.
But the fact that crime is higher within these communities, does not diminish in any way the worth of the people with black lives. If anything, for those of you who think that we are saying that black lives matter and white lives don’t, well, maybe, just maybe, whether you want to deal with it or not, maybe right now black lives should matter a little more than white lives because we haven’t done a good job affirming or proving that their lives matter.
That black lives are not inferior to us. Maybe we have done better in the last 30 years, but better isn’t good enough. There is hundreds of years of history that we are faced with and battling.
So here is the deal, #blacklivesmatter. So do white lives, so do Muslim lives, so do Jewish lives, so do orphans' lives, so do women's lives, so do Syrian lives. Life matters, all life, no one is saying it doesn’t. But when there are lives that are hurting, when there are black lives being killed by abuses, when there are children dying in the sea escaping war, when there are orphans dying of malnutrition; it demands our attention, it demands a hashtag, a movement, an uprising.
It demands that we accept without prejudice that #alllivesmatter, and that we work to proving this is so.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
