Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter. A statement that should be painfully obvious and yet here we are. Centuries upon centuries of doing everything we can to pretend that that isn’t the case. So much so, that even when the world was on lockdown and people were isolated, we still found ways to deprive our fellow man of their lives. For what? There’s never an answer, just deflection to avoid the ugly truth. Our actions as a society hurt people. Destroy people and yet we go on, as if we don’t carry the burden. As if our hands are clean. The truth is, even if you didn’t commit the sins, you benefited from them. I know in my life that I have. I’ve seen friends get arrested while I got lectures about “being more careful who I hang out with”. I was given breaks for no other reason than how I look. You hear all the time about how far we have come. How much things have changed, but look around. Take a long hard look around you. Have they changed? Or are we right where we’ve always been? Treating others as if they aren’t deserving of the same respect, the same rights.

​Black Lives Matter, a statement that should be painfully obvious is somehow controversial. Answered with chants that all lives matter. Did anyone say they didn’t? Is hearing how someone else matters that triggering to you that you feel the need to include yourself into the conversation? It isn’t about you. It’s about the men and women who are killed in the streets. Killed in their cars. Killed in their homes because it’s too much trouble for cops to check an address before breaking down a door. Let’s be clear, Black Lives Matter isn’t a slogan. It isn’t something that you can debate or distract from. It’s a universal truth. A fundamental fact that has been suppressed for far too long. You want to talk about the protests, the riots, the XYZ, cool. Let’s have those discussions. After we get on the same page about the indisputable fact that black lives have meaning. That Black Lives Matter. Because until that is understood, until that is no longer in question, until we stop killing and imprisoning innocent human beings, nothing else matters. There is no discussion worth having. No points to be made. No arguments to be had. Black Lives Matter or nothing does. You can’t have it both ways.