Why do people feel they need to respond with #AllLivesMatter or, even worse, #WhiteLivesMatter when confronted with #BlackLivesMatter? Do they not understand what the BLM movement is about? Oblivious to their privilege? Racist? Combination of these? Something else?I have always thought it to be very simple. It is exactly because #AllLivesMatter that #BlackLivesMatter is important. There is no ‘only’ before black lives matter. If there was all lives matter would have been an acceptable response. If you insist on reading it differently try this, black lives matter as much as other lives. That should set you upon the right path.
When I posted about #BlackLivesMatter on my Facebook profile I received only two responses against #BLM. The first person told me that she will not support a movement that wants to oppress her. When I asked how equality equals oppression she changed the subject. Obviously knows that it is false and an invalid argument. My conclusion, racist but trying to hide it. The second person said that the moment race is mentioned he is not interested as all should be equal. I replied that he is 100% correct, we should aim for a society where race doesn’t get mentioned and that that’s exactly why we should support #BLM. Still awaiting a reply so I assume he swallowed the far-right falsehoods. A fair assumption as he has often defended Trump against my rantings.
I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the subject but it seems to me that there are far too many white people who prefer the status quo. They will defend their privilege at any cost. One can only hope that they’ll eventually be in such a minority that they won’t matter.