Black Lives Matter should be more than Black Deaths Matter.
It says it right there on the sign…”LIVES”…. not “DEATHS”. Yes, we only listen after someone is murdered unjustly by the system we built and pay taxes on…. but the sign in the window says “LIVES”.
Can I speak to the manager please?
We may be witnessing the blackest time of our lives. Fortune 500 companies and 100-year-old institutions are being taken down by black twitter for merely not mentioning the word black. The NFL just apologized for the treatment of black players protesting. Supporting blackness has become so important to a company’s bottom line that even the NFL finds themselves apologizing for their total dismissal of their player’s protest. That is the Black Lives Matter we need to see more of.
On the flip side I see a conundrum. A paradox if you will. In the midst of all of this black love we see the championing of all things black. Black men are passing social media chain letters pledging not to tear down other black men and to praise each other for simply being black. Everyone, not only men, should be acknowledged for just surviving in this country with black skin at this point.
This is beautiful.
This is Black Lives Matter.
However the next post is Obama wasn’t s#!t.
I guess, in a way this is Black Lives Matter also.
When you direct your negative energy at the previous president (the first and only black one) as opposed to the men who are currently driving the bus that is somehow making a black life matter too, right?
Yes, opinions matter. Yes, speech is free.
But context is EVERYTHING.
In this moment, “Black Lives” has to mean black lives. Whether valid or not, plenty of scrutiny will be placed at the foot of any black person’s grab at power. White supremacy does not need help with that. Screaming black lives while tearing down an actual black life is self defeating, at best, to any of the goals we wish to reach.
The document that this country was built on may be the actual blueprint for true democracy that everyone claims it is. Or it may not be. But one thing is for sure…they aren’t ripping it up. So if the power structure is overwhelmingly represented by the beneficiaries of white supremacy, are we truly surprised at the results thus far? Why are we investing energy on blaming the first and last black man to sit at the top of it?
When Cornel West opens his mouth to say that black leadership has failed…it is false. When you have a black president for 8 years out of 250, an 80% white legislative body, a federal judiciary that is 80% white and a prosecutorial system that is 90% white…that sounds like white leadership to me.
Black political power hasn’t failed yet. The game is just starting.
Moving your mouth to even speak on black political power failing is a gesture in counterproductive provocative theater.
What does the power of “All Men Are Created Equal” look like when a black woman wields it and a white man can’t correct her? No one knows yet.
How would it look if the democratic nominee for president right now had grown up black in this country? Would we have to explain the urgency of now to them? We were so upset about a 70 year old white presidential candidate speaking on blackness but we were no where to be found when actual black candidates were running for president.
Last week, The Emmit Till Anti-Lynching Act came across the Senate floor after passing 401 to 4 in the House of Representatives. No one should be surprised when the only black republican is standing behind it while two white men from Kentucky can delay and destroy it with the snap of a finger. Does this sound like black political power to you?
Whether it is Emmit Till or George Floyd, someone shouldn’t have to die to make Black Lives Matter. But that will be our reality until black lives actually attain political power in this country let alone have equal representation. Lets get to work, but until then… Black Life Matters.
VOTE.
