When you say ‘All Lives Matter,’ you’re saying racism doesn’t exist.
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About two weeks ago, in my predominantly white town of Westport in coastal Connecticut, racist flyers were left, by dark of night, on a number of residents’ driveways. The three-word message on the flyers: “#White Lives Matter.” As reported by Westport’s local news columnist and blogger, Dan Woog, similar flyers had been distributed anonymously in another coastal town, Milford, the week before, with the following text:
America is under attack. This fact has been known for some time. Each year, we the American people lose more rights. Each election we get sold out and stabbed in the back. Between misfits robbing us and the government taxing us, we the honest hardworking Americans are barely getting by. Tired of being tired, and sick of being sick, Americans united in 1987 to form The Nationalist Movement. And ever since, it has served the American people proudly.
While other groups pop up only to vanish, The Nationalist Movement continues striding to unify the American people and liberate us from the communist regime that is currently occupying our White House and Congress Halls. The American people have been shackled with chains of “equality”, beaten bloody with the whip of “diversity”, and forced to bow a knee before the tyrants ruining our homeland.
However, Americans all across this sacred nation are arising, to make a difference. This exclusive organization carries the Red, White, and Blue with the same pride that our fore fathers did. And in doing so, we vow to never let the Amrican [sic] dream perish.
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The Milford flyers also included a link to a white supremacist website.
After the moderators had spoken and the microphone was circulated to the audience, a man spoke and asked whether anyone was concerned about free speech, whether any crime had been committed, and why it didn’t make sense to say that white lives matter or all lives matter.
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Concerned groups in Westport came together and organized a Community Conversation, held yesterday at our local library. After the moderators had spoken and the microphone was circulated to the audience, a man spoke and asked whether anyone was concerned about free speech, whether any crime had been committed, and why it didn’t make sense to say that white lives matter or all lives matter. While both the moderators and some of the attendees addressed these questions later in their remarks, I would like to provide here the short answer to why “white lives matter” and “all lives matter” undermine the fight against racism and actually promote systemic inequality.
It’s simple. You know the line from the movie, The Usual Suspects: “The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he didn’t exist”?
Well, saying white lives matter or all lives matter takes the stance that racism doesn’t exist, because both statements assume there is a level playing field for whites and people of color. And we all know there is not. Period.
Of course, all lives do matter. But as one of the moderators at the community conversation pointed out, all lives don’t truly matter until black lives matter as much as white lives, and until we root out the systemic racism and prejudice that pervades our economy, our media, and our justice system.
White lives matter and all lives matter may seem innocuous or fair or egalitarian, but they are not. They are anything but. These statements are nothing more than an attempt to whitewash racism.
Only if you believe that the history of white people in America is the same as the history of black people in America can you say white lives matter or all lives matter. And if you believe that, you’re living in a delusion.
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Only if you believe that the history of white people in America is the same as the history of black people in America can you say white lives matter or all lives matter. And if you believe that, you’re living in a delusion.
Only if you believe whites and blacks in America have the same challenges and the same opportunities can you say white lives matter or all lives matter. And if you believe that, as a white person, you’re unaware of your own privilege.
And only if you believe that what we call race, which doesn’t exist in biology, is not a factor in how lives matter, not just in America but worldwide, can you say white lives matter or all lives matter. And if you believe that you’re living in a dream, not the dream that Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. had, that people would be judged not by the color of their skin but the content of their character, but the insulated dream of blind ignorance—the most dangerous dream of all.
Photo—The All-Nite Images/Flickr
I get the problem with white lives natter, but if the argument is that it’s wrong because it ignores that racism exists then wouldn’t black lives matter ignore that racism exists against Hispanics or Asians or Arabs or Native Americans? Would black lives matter be ignoring the fact that most murders are of men so shouldn’t it at least be black men’s lives matter. You can argue that police have killed black women also, but I’m sure you can find instances where they’ve killed or failed to properly investigate the killings of white men to quite possible a greater degree… Read more »
I think you’re wrong Tom. All lives do matter. This is a matter of inclusion. Black lives, white lives all lives. When we finally grasp this concept we can have real change. But when it is continually separated then the people will be and remain separated. This is why I think you’re wrong. You are adding to the separateness in the guise of white guilt.
I never understood the whole white guilt thing.
Cody, really? You’re “not entirely sure” what Mr. Fiffer is “trying to say?” Seriously? It’s right there in the article: “Of course, all lives do matter. But as one of the moderators at the community conversation pointed out, all lives don’t truly matter until black lives matter as much as white lives, and until we root out the systemic racism and prejudice that pervades our economy, our media, and our justice system.” You don’t need to be “really active in any of this” to understand the concept. It’s quite simple, even for those who wish it wasn’t, and who, instead… Read more »
Admittedly a slow thinker, especially politically, I should have reread the article before making a post. I understood the quote you made to read essentially as, “Of course all lives matter, but only if everyone thinks so.” I only understood lives mattering in the objective sense. Lives matter whether anyone thinks so or not, and I failed to recognize this as a political piece more than a moral one. I read “white lives matter” and thought “Of course all lives matter” and not as “Nationalist Movement credo”. Of course all lives matter, but for the peace of this truth to… Read more »
I’m not entirely sure what you’re trying to say… Whether history, the present, or the future is rough for one “race” over another doesn’t mean that all lives don’t matter. You seem to be implying that black lives matter more than white lives because of this racism. You say race doesn’t exist in biology, which is true, yet say this non-existent thing plays a factor in determining whether a life matters or not. No matter how deluded anyone may be, that delusion doesn’t reduce or add to the worth of any persons life, as if though the gift of life… Read more »
Right on point, Thomas! Well done!
Greg, Thank you!