#blacklivesmatter

i'd like to start off by acknowledging my white privilege.

in light of recent events
the ones the news covers
people are responding.

some people have reacted with violence.
with ignorance.
with misunderstanding.
with love.
with activism.
with apathy.
with facebook rants.

and i have remained mostly silent
save conversations with my family
because i do not see the point of wasting words
for people who will not listen.
no sense in getting agreement from people who
get it already.

if a person comes to you, and tells you that they are enraged, upset, depressed, fed up, struggling to feel appreciated, respected, and loved
and you respond by saying
everyone is enraged, upset, depressed, fed up, struggling to feel valued within a culture that dehumanizes us
then you are missing the point.
and unless you are out there, helping to lift everyone up,
fighting to end the injustices that effect everyone,
then you have no place arguing that alllivesmatter.

if you have a difficult time realizing that
our bloody history
has not yet resolved the issues born
from imperialism, colonialism, manifest destiny, capitalism, industrialism,
hubris, greed, inequality
from our culture
from the forms of oppression that have and still exist
then you do not understand the issue
and you are probably white.
or at least in denial
maybe privileged in such a way that the ugliness of the world does not touch you.

from the time i was in middle school,
i began to consider the idea of race.
imagine my relief once i discovered it was a construct like everything else
but my devastation once i understood the extent of its damage.
civil rights leaders must be rolling in their graves, i thought.
or maybe they are pleased we are at least at a point
where there is conversation surrounding the issues
they gave their lives to.

according to the definition i believe is accurate
racism involves the systemic oppression of minority groups.
the dominant group,
while potentially subject to discrimination and prejudice
cannot be the victim of racism.

black lives matter
because our justice system
has failed,
specifically,
at this moment in time,
but also in general.
and more recently,
we've been reminded how their
deaths
did not bring about justice,
but revealed,
once again
that the system is biased.  fallible.
easily manipulated
and partial to the lives of folks who are part of the dominant culture.
we've been reminded
racism exists
still.

to criticize the movement behind blacklivesmatter
is to fail to acknowledge this injustice.
it is to deny that
black people are still living in a society
that does not care just as much for them
is to say to black people that
everyone is struggling
because that's just the way things are.

but many people
cannot simply accept the way things are
and i support them for their efforts
to change
to help
to educate
to move us forward.
they understand that their effort lift us all up.
not because there hasn't been progress,
but because it is clear our work is not done
and the ugliness of the world
is not only something that affects people
in distant places outside of our borders
it is something evident in our neighborhoods;
it is something so common most people fail to question it.
and it is something worth fighting against.

so
yes.  all lives matter.
but unless you are acknowledging the lives that
our culture has failed
you are missing the point.
it isn't about being colorblind.
it's about embracing, valuing,
not appropriating,
the diversity that makes this world beautiful.
every color in the rainbow deserves respect,
every shade of humanity deserves justice,
deserves for their human rights to be upheld.
and whenever something happens that reminds us
how a particular group has been neglected
we are responsible for standing in solidarity with them
not because they deserve justice more than another group
but because they are right to speak out in a culture that
often dismisses, exploits, or distorts their voices.

so
yes.
black lives matter.