"All Lives Matter" is a wonderful sentiment but...why is it only trotted out when black people

[forjusticethunders]

say Black Lives Matter?

Why do you never hear "All Lives Matter" when kids are dying of lead poisoning or people are committing suicide because of the oppression in their lives or when crazed killers are shooting up schools?

Makes you think, huh.

[pinboy3niner]

1. Obvious, isn't it?

[HughBeaumont]

2. Denying the Victim.

It's a neutralization technique and a favorite card of the "all about me" bunch.

Denying the victim is similar, but has a slight difference in that the perpetrator attempts to assert that he or she is the real victim. Denying the victim is generally less of a one-on-one scenario, and more topical, ie. "The real victims of the supposed 'mistreatment of women' are the children who have to grow up in homes where their mother wants to work instead of care for them." Denying the victims, in this sense, is often an attempt at historical revisionism, to make those charged with the crimes, look more or even totally innocent in the light of modern society.

Denial of the victim can also take the form of minimizing the number of victims or the severity of the offense. For example, the Roman Catholic Church played this game, when trying to claim the systematic child abuse by some priests were simply isolated events both individually and by priests at large. They also pushed the issue that the boys should not be described as "children," but "young men" to minimize the sense of how horrific these rapes were. Both blaming the victim and denying the victim are specific instances of neutralization.

[Bucky]

3. Today the victims are police. God willing, murdering police officers is not a social trend.

Today I can say "Police Lives Matter" because two evil fucks used the very important, very vital Black Lives Matter movement as cover for a terrorist ambush against the police. This wasn't karma; this wasn't "inevitable". This was evil and it was as much directed against the mission of BLM as it was against the police who were peacefully protecting the BLM protest last night.

After all, whoever did this had to know they were going to make life much more dangerous for young black men who run afoul of the police in minor ways. This horrific act doesn't "make me think." It makes me want to promote peace even more desperately now.

[The2ndWheel]

4. Do you hear a lot about BLM when a black guy shoots another black guy?

My guess would be that everyone is talking about their own specific thing. BLM, it seems, is more about institutional racism, cops shooting black people, etc. ALM would be a different topic than that. Since nobody actually likes listening to anyone else that they don't already agree with, nobody ever talks about the same thing, because life is subjective. Everyone has their own agenda.

[pinboy3niner]

6. BULLSHIIT!!!

The only purpose of proclaiming that "All Lives Matter" is to diminish, undermine and delegitimize the valid complaints about the unjustified police killings of black people. That is the only agenda of mouthing "All Lives Matter."

[The2ndWheel]

9. And "valid complaints about the unjustified police killings of black people"

doesn't roll off the tongue as smoothly as Black Lives Matter. BLM is a general description for an apparently specific issue, and ALM is an even more general description for an apparently specific issue. How many times do we hear about BLM when a black person kills another black person? About the same amount as ALM when anyone kills anyone.

[pinboy3niner]

16. Funny how we never even HEARD of ALM until after BLM. nt

[metroins]

36. Because people heard BLM

Thought the police were killing too many people and wanted to react.

But the people who pushed BLM decided to be segmented and limit the scope of their cause. So ALM was created to be inclusive and address real police reform.

[pinboy3niner]

37. ALM to address real police reform?

The wholly invented fictional bullshit in that assertion is worthy of the Most Shameless Bullshit of the Year Award.

And you're really trying to sell that crap at DU?

The countdown clock is running on you, my friend. Good Luck!

[The2ndWheel]

40. I'm not saying ALM is an actual movement, or means anything

It is a reaction to BLM, and perhaps a cynical one. Saying ALM is taking attention away from the specifics of BLM, but BLM also isn't as general as it sounds. Black lives do matter, but BLM is specific to black lives mattering in relation to cops. That's a legit cause, but all lives mattering in relation to all other lives is also true, whether it's a legitimate political cause or not.

And yeah, ALM, if it even exists as a thing, isn't a thing without BLM. It only became a thing, however real, in relation to BLM when BLM didn't/doesn't say black lives matter when black people kill other black people. If the BL part means BL, it sounds like it should mean all BL, not just when it involves cops.

That's how all political movements work though. None of them can take into account every variable, which is why ALM, a very general idea, doesn't really mean anything, and as far as I know is just a hashtag. At the same time, BLM is a bit of a misnomer, if it's not talking about all black lives, regardless of who kills a black person.

[pinboy3niner]

42. Just give up

BLM is an actual, legitimate cause. I'm a white guy who marched in multiple Justice for Trayvon protests here in L.A., sometimes in the company of fellow DUers who also were white guys. We marched and protested against a real injustice in the justice system in our society.

You're damn right ALM doesn't mean anything, except as an attempt to disagree with the notion and the reality that African Americans are treated differently in our society and in our justice system. Right down to the point of casually being gunned down on our streets.

If you care about our country, you should care about this.

[The2ndWheel]

44. "Right down to the point of casually being gunned down on our streets."

Yes, and sometimes by other black people, which doesn't seem to get protested. Where's the multi-city protests a day or two after something like that happens?

I never said BLM wasn't an actual, legitimate cause. Whether it was or not wasn't even the question in the OP of this thread.

[pinboy3niner]

47. This crap jumped the shark a while back

Do you really think you can sell that racist shit here? Look for a deep cut your next paycheck.

[lostnfound]

10. If it came out of the mouth of an innocent four year old

would you still say that?
Some - many - dumbasses say it specifically to do what you say they are doing -- to minimize, deny, shift attention. They use it to argue, to sneer, to ignore the problem.
But some adults still see the world with that four year old why can't we all hold hands, of COURSE black lives matter, ALL lives matter... A naïveté is behind the words, often. Insulated from a harsher reality, they live in a dream world and are speaking of a utopia. In a utopia, all lives do matter, and that is a larger truth.

Two very different motivations at work there.
I understand it's a sore point because the damage being done to the AA community from racist institutions is unceasing and is not discussed enough.

[MadDAsHell]

14. You ignored the poster's point about BLM ignoring a crime unless it's interracial...

Last edited Fri Jul 8, 2016, 09:26 AM - Edit history (2)

He/she is right...it clearly is about each group having their own specific agenda. Otherwise BLM would be speaking up EVERYDAY about the tragic inner-city violence amongst persons of color.

But that isn't part of the BLM agenda, BLM really means "when killed by white people." Specifically cops. And that's perfectly fine for that to be the focus of their agenda; police killings of persons of color are completely disproportionate and out of control. It isn't a knock on BLM to acknowledge that they're only really focused on that small, rare type of situational violence against black lives and not the larger and wider violence occurring against black lives every day; it's just acknowledging reality and the group's own mission statement.

[pinboy3niner]

21. Of COURSE it's about that. It's about when black lives DON'T MATTER.

We're not exactly having an epidemic of white lives not mattering.

[BronxBoy]

28. Just as All Lives Matter...

would be speaking out about the systemic discrimination and racism in the parts of American society that lead to the problems that BLM is speaking about if it was truly about all lives having meaning. ALM, if such a movement truly exists, should be speaking up about a system that consistently and reliably turns it's head when people of color are abused by the justice system or applying unequal justice in the face of equal offenses. But it doesn't.

[MadDAsHell]

31. Oh, I don't disagree; All Lives Matter is a bunch of bull...

But I was agreeing with the poster that said each group has it's own very specific, narrow agenda, including Black Lives Matter. Another poster said that was bullshit and seemed to think that it somehow denigrates Black Lives Matter to admit that, at least right now, they are only narrowly focused on black lives that are ended by white people. There's nothing denigrating to admit reality; that's BLM's focus, and that's ok.

That second person that "called bullshit" was the one I was disagreeing with.

[BronxBoy]

32. OK

Sorry if I misread your intentions

[MadDAsHell]

33. No problem!

[KingCharlemagne]

19. +Infinity! - nt

[pinboy3niner]

38. Now I'm sorry I didn't put it in all caps. :( nt

[pinboy3niner]

46. Never mind. Fixed now.

[Chemisse]

25. Exactly!

The response that 'blue lives matter' makes me even more livid.

The death of an officer has ALWAYS been treated as a great and community-wide loss. They have NEVER had to rally support or plead for understanding of the value of their lives. We will be seeing this in the coming days. I don't begrudge them this, but at least have the grace to concede that black lives are undervalued in our society.

[gopiscrap]

29. Exactly

[uponit7771]

11. False equivalence, the police are to serve and protect not kill because they're affraid

[The2ndWheel]

43. I can't argue with that second part

I was responding to the question of why all lives matter is only ever said after black people say black lives matter. Does BLM talk about a black kid dying because they drowned? No, the same way ALM(whatever it is as a political cause) isn't said after some kid dies of lead poisoning.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. Why? I think we know why.

[KeepItReal]

7. Or when we find out 20 Veterans commit suicide Every Day

Eom

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. The people who say it usually don't actually believe it

In one post, they say "All lives matter." In the next, they laugh that "Baton Rouge is safer tonight," after a black man is killed.

It is empty, vicious, and racist sloganeering, for the most part.

Whatever one might say about #BLM people, they at least believe what they are saying, and they say it without a nasty little sneer. I don't find that from "All Lives Matter" people.

[DesMoinesDem]

12. What kids are dying of lead poisioning?

[NewJeffCT]

13. I've always thought of it as "Black Lives Matter, Too"

Because of the police killings and what happened in Flint and elsewhere, it seemed like black lives did not matter and BLM was affirmation that they did indeed matter like every other life matters.

[Iggo]

41. That's what I've been trying to tell the idiots in my office.

I tell them, "The entire saying is Blacks Lives Matter Just As Much As Everyone Else's Lives, but that doesn't fit on a T-shirt."

[thesquanderer]

15. Maybe BLM would have gotten less flack if they had instead used BLMT.

"Black Lives Matter, Too."

"Black lives matter" and "all lives matter" are both true statements, but "Black lives matter, too" couldn't be countered with an otherwise rational sounding "All Lives Matter" which misses the point. Of course BLM is not saying that other lives *don't* matter, so ALM is a response that addresses the semantics rather than the intended content of the statement... and I'm afraid it fools people who don't think deeply enough about it, particularly people who only see what's happening on TV and live in communities with almost no POC. It provides an easy way for the uninformed to dismiss it.

[uponit7771]

18. Another false equivalence would've been brought up in response, its a privileged reaction

[RoccoR5955]

24. absolutely. n/t

[George II]

17. It's not.

[KingCharlemagne]

20. 3-4 women are killed each day by their spouse or SO, usually by the

same cohort who sneer "All Lives Matter."

[Punx]

22. Why?

Because they are hypocrites.

Ask George Orwell:

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

"The sentence is a comment on the hypocrisy of governments that proclaim the absolute equality of their citizens but give power and privileges to a small elite."

Substitute "white privilege" for governments and you get to the same place.

[RoccoR5955]

23. Oh, and not to mention the quite offensive

"Black guns matter," and "Blue lives matter."
I have seen both of these around different places.
WTF is wrong with people these days?
Didn't the police, as an institution see the sort of thing that happened in Texas as a retaliation for what they have been doing to folks?
How short sighted is that?
Fools!

[IronLionZion]

26. Or when people die from not affording health care

or when workers die from poor safety conditions at their workplace.

Because to some people, all lives don't matter. Black lives don't matter. Some white lives don't even matter. Someone posted a video of an old white man running away because of an expired car inspection sticker, getting tased and writhing around in the snow, and then getting shot in the back. Unarmed. Dead. But his old white male life didn't matter. Or the video of the white female lawyer in a business suit getting shot with rubber bullets in the arm and back while walking peacefully during an occupy protest. (I only bring this up because some people think it couldn't happen to them)

Just watch what happens in Cleveland during the republican convention. I do NOT recommend going there to protest Trump if you value your life.

To some assholes, YOUR life does NOT matter.

[etherealtruth]

27. Echoing most other responses: WE ALL KNOW WHY

[aintitfunny]

30. I agree

And I have seen known progressives use the "All Lives Matter" phrase, and some "Blue Lives Matter." They may not realize how it denigrates the meaning behind Black Lives Matter.

[Politicub]

34. Obama said it best

Saying black lives matter is the same as saying all lives matter. The hunting and killing of African Americans by the authorities is an epidemic. We need to focus on fixing this systemic problem.

[heaven05]

35. we all know the answer

only some will accept that truth. The rest will deny, distract and continue to diminish the truth about race AND white RACISTS in America.

[pinboy3niner]

39. More guns?

Sorry, brother, I couldn't resist.

[heaven05]

45. No

more tolerance for each other.