#AllLivesMatter

The social media campaign #BlackLivesMatter was started in response to the outrageous events in Ferguson, U.S.A. In 2014 Michael Brown (18-year-old black man) was gunned down by Darren Wilson (28-year-old white police officer). With the circumstances surrounding the case highlighting that it was a clear act of racism, there was a societal uproar from those who recognised the injustice of an innocent mans death followed by a guilty mans pardon. Darren Wilson escaped all charges and all repercussions for his actions and this lead to avid protesting and in turn the #BlackLivesMatter campaign online. Following these protests, more racially driven killings were brought to the forefront of the worlds attention by protesters in an attempt to ensure that these blatant acts of racism were not going unnoticed by the general public.

In and of themselves, the events that occurred in Ferguson, mainly the lack of consequences for the white cops, made a very clear point about societies view on racism and how much we still need to fight, not only against it, but to have the general public recognise it as still being an everyday issue.

With these protests continuing alongside more deaths of innocent black men, the campaign online was getting more and more attention including the unwanted vocalised opinions of blatant racists. Infuriatingly, one of the responses to the #BlackLivesMatter campaign was the creation of #AllLivesMatter. This stemmed from the obnoxious thought process of;

"#BlackLivesMatter? What about us? Do we the WHITES no longer matter just because of a little racism? That is real racism! Claiming that only one race matters!! How about #AllLivesMatter!!"

and so on...

Many people do not see the issue with this approach and truly believe that by saying #AllLivesMatter, they are supporting racial equality. But it is important to recognise the true significance of hijacking the original social media campaign and what saying #AllLivesMatter really means. 

What is the purpose of #BlackLivesMatter? This campaign was started as a way to acknowledge the fact that there is little value placed on the lives of black people, especially by the police force. With so many deaths of unarmed, innocent black people, #BlackLivesMatter was a form of peaceful protest in an attempt to point out that black lives do in fact have value and are worth just as much as white lives. While to some, this is simply common sense, the campaign was a way to try send this message to the whole of society. 

What is wrong with saying #AllLives Matter? They do all matter! While it is of course true that all lives matter, our modern society has no trouble accepting the fact that white lives matter, we see this every day, but somehow still struggle to understand black lives in the same way. In this sense, saying that all lives matter is like asking for something you already have; its white people asking for their lives to be respected, even though that respect is there in the first place. One man created a fantastic analogy on Facebook; "My personal interpretation of Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter. Bob is sitting at the dinner table. Everyone else gets a plate of food except Bob. Bob says "Bob Deserves Food". Everyone at the table responds with "Everyone Deserves Food" and continues eating. All though Everyone Deserves Food is a true statement, it does nothing to actually rectify the fact that BOB HAS NO FOOD!!" (Adam Campbell). Using #AllLivesMatter is down the same vein of "being colour-blind"; while it has good intentions, the reality is that those who act this way are really failing to address the issues of race in modern society by claiming they are already overcome and therefore, any action against racism is no longer necessary. It is turning a blind eye to what is really going on with the mindset that if our modern day and age is supposedly so liberal, racism must no longer exist, therefore there is no need to continue the conversation surrounding it. If you claim you are sick of hearing about racism, how sick do you think people of colour are of experiencing it. 

The difference between #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter comes down to this; equality is giving all people the same opportunity and expecting that they should all do as well as one another while equity is acknowledging that because of the way our society functions, prejudice takes away from the ability of some individuals to fulfil their potential, therefore in order to have everyone equal, some need to be given more opportunity or help than others in order to balance our society out. 

#BlackLivesMatter exists because as sad as it is, even in our supposedly liberal age, some people need reminding.

Dedicated to, and in remembrance of those who died because of police brutality, including;

Michael Brown, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Dontre Hamilton, Tamir Rice, Ezell Ford, Dante Parker, Tanisha Anderson, Akai Gurley, Rumain Brisbon, Jerame Reid, Tony Robinson, Phillip White, Sandra Bland, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray