Finally, All Lives Matter

Ten days after the murder by a white police officer of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a senor editor of Good Housekeeping argued "responding 'All Lives Matter' to 'Black Lives Matter' is actually more divisive than unifying. That's because it discounts and diminishes the focus on the violence and discrimination Black individuals face every day in this country."

The following day, a sportswriter named Donnovan Bennett generously offered  "a tutorial on why 'All Lives Matter' is somewhere on the spectrum between tone deaf and offensive." A columnist at Cleveland.com labeled it "one of America's most ignorant rallying cries." Joseph Margulies, a professor of law and government at Cornell University, charged "saying that 'all lives matter' is a weapon of racism."

Even John McWhorter, in his naive days, maintained "Black lives matter’ means ‘black lives matter, too.’ The ‘too’ is implied." (It rarely was.)

"What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours," sang Dinah Washington 62 years ago. Twenty-four hours can make a difference, and what a difference 18 months make. Back in those heady days of "black lives matter" and "Black Lives Matter," the slogan "All Lives Matter" was widely considered racist in liberal and progressive circles. 

It seems the worm has turned:

Father of Ahmaud Arbery just now: “ALL lives matter. I don’t want no daddy to watch his kid get shot down like that. It’s ALL our problem. So let’s keep fighting to make this a better place for all human beings. Love everybody! All human beings need to be treated equally.” ❤️👏🏼👑 pic.twitter.com/PlGwBeMlhU

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) November 24, 2021

Marcus Arbery should be applauded, and not only for stating "for real, all lives matter, not just blacks. We don't want to see nobody going through this." He said this in the presence of Reverend Al Sharpton, irreverently referred to as "the Rev," by the rude Nicole Wallace and a few others at MSNBC. Sharpton had contended fifteen days after the murder of Floyd "The problem is it has not been equal on the other side, so there’s been no equal need to say white lives matter – that has been a given and the system has worked that way."

Safe prediction: personalities appearing on MSNBC and CNN will either ignore Mr. Arbery's remark or claim the context has changed. The context in the spring/summer of 2020 was racial justice; the context in the autumn of 2021 is.... racial justice.

As Reverend Sharpton knew, virtually no one was saying "white lives matter." Some people were saying "all lives matter." And now the father of Marcus Arbery has said so, also.

                                                HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 

Share |