All Lives Matter

Have you been using the #AllLivesMatter hashtag?

I’ve used this hashtag before. Years ago, right when the Black Lives Matter movement started, before police had to wear bodycams.

You’ve probably got good intentions, but unfortunately what you’re likely doing is telling black people that their cause doesn’t matter.

I used to be in the All Lives Matter camp, because as a Libertarian, I truly believe that skin color doesn’t matter.

My nieces are black, my cousin is black, my brother-in-law is black, I have black friends. I don’t see black or white or brown. Most people are like this. That’s the way the world should be.

That’s not the way the world is though.

Over the years I used to take the argument that all lives matter, because of the way I think about racism.

I’ve come to realize the nuance in the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s not about what I think, it’s about what other people are experiencing right now.

Black people experience racism-by-default in America, and when you post “All Lives Matter” you may be intending to send a signal of fairness, but you’re really sending a signal of not caring.

All of these things are true:

• Not all people are racist
• Most people are not racist.
• You are probably not a racist.
• There are racist people.
• Racism against white people exists in the world.
• Asian people can be racist.
• Black people can be racist.
• White people are a minority race globally.
• Wealth & power is concentrated more to white people.
• All lives matter.
• Black people get killed by cops in America disproportionately.
• Black people get arrested for non-violent drug crimes in America disproportionately.
• Black people get accused of crimes in American disproportionately.
• Black people in America have to live with a baseline load of racism that white people don’t have to live it.

So, yes All Live Matter – but that’s not what Black Lives Matter is about. It’s insulting to say “all lives matter” in response to “black lives matter” because whether you realize it or not, you’re actually insinuating that they think all lives don’t matter.

That’s a strawman argument.

If you’re uncomfortable posting “Black Live Matter” or engaging in a conversation that has to do with this movement, it’s better to say nothing than to say All Lives Matter.

We should definitely revisit this “All Lives Matter” movement when the racist drug laws in the USA have changed, when millions of incarcerated black men have been pardoned from the for-profit prison system & when systemic police brutality against minorities in the USA has been solved.

All Lives Matter is a fucking good cause that as a Libertarian I can get behind – it’s just that right now that’s perceived as insensitive & insulting.

In Nassim Taleb’s book “Skin in the Game” he talks about the minority rule. All it takes is a small number of inteolerant virtuous people with skin in the game to change society.

This is why for example you don’t see peanuts on airplanes anymore. The small minority of people with peanut allergies was able to lobby the airlines to remove peanuts.

The majority of people can eat peanuts but they can also eat cashews or pretzels. People who are allergic to peanuts can usually eat cashews or pretzels.

The intolerant vocal minority got peanuts removed, because cashew & pretzels did not pose an inconvenient to the silent majority.

It’s the same with kosher food. For religious reasons, a kosher eater will not eat non-kosher food, but a non-kosher eater will eat kosher food. That’s why there’s so much kosher food. It does not bother a regular person to eat kosher food.

So applying this to a much more important line of thinking, if you truly think All Lives Matter, you must then also agree that Black Lives Matter.

So if you’re a person who promotes ‘All Lives Matter’ but refuses to align with ‘Black Lives Matter,’ you might have to take a look inside and explore whether or not maybe you do have some biased feelings towards minorities.

Maybe you don’t, maybe you do – but this isn’t really about you, remember.

There are people who are racist, and some of them are police officers with guns, and black people in America have to deal with that baseline stress every day of their lives.

In order to change society so that all lives truly do matter, the problems needs to be addressed. We’re talking about reforming a trillion dollar for-profit prison system that is literally modern day slavery.

If you have not yet watched the documentary 13th on Neflix yet, please watch it. It’s eye-opening, and it really shows you that all lives currently do not matter.