#What Lives Matter? The War of Words
EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images
As the Black Lives Matter movement grows amidst the recent police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, the negative reaction to it is being played out in a war of words.
#Blacklivesmatter is dismissed by those who claim #Alllivesmatter. While “All lives matter” may have good intentions behind it, it’s similar to those who tell minorities that they are “color-blind”. While both of these statements may initially seem very innocuous there’s a subtext that’s either not understood by those using it or worse yet, being used in a manipulative way to dismiss people of color.
Let’s start with the phrase, “I’m color-blind”. When a Caucasian uses this phrase, no matter how well-meaning it may sound (i.e. they don’t let color impact their decisions on race relations), it can also come off as lacking any understanding or empathy on how race plays a vital role in an ethnic minority’s sense of identity. In other words, if you do not take into account a person’s ethnicity (i.e. by being “color-blind”), then you may be invalidating their experiences. You may unwittingly send the message that you don’t care to understand the hardships, challenges, and everyday struggles of living as a minority in mainstream society.
For example, as an Asian-American, it’s discouraging when people tell me they’re “color-blind”. They will say they don’t see me as Asian-American but view me as just like him or her (i.e. white). But there’s a large part of my identity, heritage, and culture they’re not seeing when they say that such as having immigrant parents, the difficulties of “fitting in” or standing out in a white environment, the teasing/bullying that occurs, and in more insidious situations overt racism.
So when it comes to the #Black Lives Matter movement, if you’re white and claim on social media that #All Lives Matter, what you’re essentially dismissing is the cultural struggle African-Americans have endured from the times of slavery to the present where institutional and systemic racism continue to wreak havoc on African-Americans.
