Why saying "All Lives Matter" is racist

The Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013 after George Zimmerman, a white male neighbourhood watch, was acquitted for the fatal shooting of African-American teen Trayvon Martin.  In response, people took to social media using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, broadening the conversation around the injustices in the legal system.  

Trayvon martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Sandra Bland, are only a few of the many African-American citizens who have died at the hands of law enforcement. Following their deaths, participants in the Black Lives Matter movement organized rallies, marches, and protests, making sure their deaths would not be in vain.

In response, some people decided to counter “Black Lives Matter” with “ALL Lives Matter.” Whilst these individuals may be under the impression that “All Lives Matter” is more empowering and open to the diversity of humanity, it is actually very ignorant and very racist.

Saying “All Lives Matter” is a form of colourblindness:

It takes race out of the conversation, and is a clear indicator of a person’s ignorance regarding America’s racist past and present. Colourblindness is the assumption that race is irrelevant in modern society. That somehow we are living in a ‘post-race’ world. But it is plainly obvious that this is not the case. Look at the arrest rates of black people in comparison to white, look at the sentencing levels, look at the statistics of black people being stopped and frisked by police. Now tell me that racism doesn’t exist. Saying “All Lives Matter” turns your back on these injustices, and denies black people the right to make their voices heard.

Saying “All Lives Matter” has white privilege at its roots:

Following on from colourblindness, white people have the luxury of not knowing black and brown truth, because they don’t have to know. If you’re taking this course, you’ll know good and well what white privilege is. The statistics mentioned above are all instances of the privileges white people have, that people of colour do not. Saying “All Lives Matter” takes race out the equation, and white people so willingly do this because they have not had to go through life constantly thinking of themselves as white. Social, legal, and educational systems are explicitly Eurocentric and cater to white people. Black people do not have this luxury. Black people are forced to think about their race daily. From why they didn’t get that job, or why they are being stopped so regularly by police. Race is always in the back of their mind. So when you say “All Lives Matter” you’re not acknowledging the privileges you already have as a white person, privileges that black and brown people are protesting. You’re turning your back on this truth, and saying “We’re all equal, we all have the same struggle,” when this is not the case.

Saying “All Lives Matter” is saying “Why should black lives have so much value over mine?”

When people say “Black Lives Matter”, they are NOT saying that “Black lives are the ONLY lives that matter.” They are saying “Black lives matter TOO.” So instead of taking this movement as an attack on you being a non-black person, start seeing things from another person’s point of view. As I’ve said social, economic, educational, and legal systems, all cater to white people. White people have been living in a world where almost everything has been open to them. So when Black Lives Matter came around, and was explicitly focused on black people, it was almost as if these ignorant individuals (not all white people, I know) felt attacked that for the first time in their lives something was not revolved around them. Stop denying people of colour their voices. Stop denying that there is injustice.