Reasons Why Saying “All Lives Matter” IS Part of the Problem
Whenever we on the left tweet out #BlackLivesMatter after a black person has their rights violated and is killed we encounter a barrage of responses from those on the extreme right that tell us that “All lives matter” and the same happens when we say that #Translivesmatter.
We focus on those issues as those are the people who have been at risk of having their rights violated the most and who our society has shown not to value when all is said and done. They are the ones being killed and the ones who many in this country do not think matter and that is why the “All lives matter” narrative does not work.
When writing this article I thought about only focusing on Black Lives Matter and leaving transgender lives out of it due to recent events in Minneapolis where the conversation of black lives and racial injustice came up again with the brutal murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers but then I thought about it and decided to add transgender people into the conversation because of this.
Transgender American lives have been shown not to matter too — they are at risk for some of the same reasons as black lives in this country — especially black transgender people.
This is the same issue for both groups and in some ways, other groups like non-white immigrants, Muslims, others in the LGBTQ community, and on some level, women but none more than transgender people and black people and the events in Minneapolis and throughout this country for far too long have shown that to us.
Trump supporters and others on the far right have pushed the “All lives matter” narrative for far too long and it needs to stop. They do not value all lives and only say this as a way to all lives matter stuff when the specifically Black Lives Matter movement hold protests to fight for racial justice and equality as a way to defend their racism.
Until black and trans lives matter then no lives will matter.
In this article I will focus on four points to fight against the “All Lives Matter” narrative that these people push as a way to defend racism and attack the Black Lives Matter and Trans Lives Matter movements. I do this so that people can see that saying that all lives matter is just a way to further oppress these other groups who are being killed and attacked in our country and a way to ignore the problem.
- We Never said that ONLY Black (and Trans) Lives Matter
We never said that all lives don’t matter. We simply are focusing on these lives right now because they are the ones who are being oppressed and murdered in our country. To say that all lives matter when black people are being killed by police for doing nothing wrong and trans people are being slaughtered for being themselves is basically saying that you don’t care.
It is not like those in these movements are saying to ignore everyone else who is being killed and to only focus on black and trans lives, we are saying that this is the problem right now and we should try and focus on those who are being targeted and put our attention there. It is the fact that people who say that “All Lives Matter” are saying so to silence the black lives matter people and to a lesser extent, the trans lives matter people.
I talk more about the Black Lives Matter movement because it is bigger and that is where we are at right now, but we should not ignore the Trans Lives Matter movement either as transgender people are one of the most who die in hate crimes in this growing and the problem has been growing for some time now.
Again, we never said that white lives or police lives or straight lives don’t matter, because they do matter.
We focus on the black and trans lives right now because black people and trans people are the ones dying at a higher rate from police brutality and transphobic hate crimes than anyone else. This is an issue that we must focus on but by doing so we never say that other lives do not matter but people who say that all lives matter are the ones who are ignoring the Black Lives Matter and Trans Lives Matter movements and that is because they want them to shut up and go away.
2. This House is Burning
When there is a house on fire then it is the one that the fire department focuses on helping and putting out that fire. There would be no reason for them to focus on the rest of the block when the problem is with one specific house that is on fire.
This is the situation here.
The houses on fire are black and transgender Americans and that is why these movements focus on those people.
Saying “All Lives Matter” when all lives are not losing their lives at a record pace is like saying that everyone is poor while you live in a mansion in the hills and drive a Mercedes Benz. This is exactly what it is like saying — it is ignoring the plight of the ones suffering the most by falsely stating that everyone is suffering.
The houses of black and trans lives are burning, those are the ones that we should be focusing on.
The house on fire right now is the black lives house and in a different way, the trans lives house. These are the ones we should be focusing on and place our full attention on, not “all lives” as those in these extreme right-wing circles would have you believe. When you focus on the house that isn’t burning then you ignore the problem and are basically saying that you don’t care.
The Medical Analogy
Similar to the ‘House on Fire” analogy, the medical analogy is one that we can also look to when discussing ‘All lives matter”. This analogy is where we can see the most precise picture of the issue and give the people who say this the real truth.
Think of it this way. You go into an emergency room and it is full of patients and some of them have extreme issues like heart attacks, strokes, and other life threatening medical problems and here you come with a stubbed toe and you demand to be seen right away claiming that your problem is the same as the other problems.
This is the same situation.
All medical issues matter, yes, we know this. However, we must focus on the most serious issues that require immediate attention in a hospital setting as if we do not then those people will die, you will not die from a stubbed toe or a stuffy nose.
Doctors do not treat all medical issues the same and they should not and the same should go for this situation. Look at it this way, when someone gets in a car accident and they have a broken neck and the another person in the same accident has just scratches, they both are not treated the same, the person with the more severe injuries is the priority.
Black and trans lives ARE the priority.
Racism Plays a Role
Racism plays a role in the conversation. When you say ‘All Lives Matter” what you are saying is that the Black Lives Matter protests should stop because you do not want your racism to be called out and the same goes with the Trans Lives Matter conversation.
These lives matter because of privilege, white privilege.
Racism plays a big role in the conversation when people say that all lives matter and it is the reasoning for them saying it. They see the protests and they feel a sense of guilt of their way of thinking and the racism that they defend and cannot handle it so they say that “All lives matter”, it is a way to tell people to shut up and stop fighting racism and other types of hate.
Racism and hate always plays a role. It is the ultimate form of deflection when the issue is discussed.
When a police officer kills a black person they say that “blue lives matter” and that is disrespect to the black life that was just lost. When we see trans and other LGBTQ people try and fight for their rights, straight people throw parades to show their “Pride”, and the same goes when any minority group is persecuted and wants change, the far right will deflect back to all lives matter and to stop the conversation.
Racism plays a big role. Just look at when Colin Kaepernick took a knee, he was blacklisted from the league but when a white person does the same they are not. It is the same systematic racism that has existed for so long and it continues on today and more than ever. So, do not tell me that saying “All lives Matter” when a black person dies is not racist or when it happens to a trans person, it is not hateful.
It is!
The Bottom Line
They say that “All Lives Matter” to make themselves feel better about the fact that they do not care about black or trans lives. Just look at the fact that when we have one of these instances like what happened with George Floyd being murdered and we march for black lives, they come and say “All Lives Matter”, which is a slap in the face to Mr. Floyd who was murdered because he was a black person — not an “all” person.
Here are the facts of why “All Lives Matter” is nonsense.
In 2019, 331 transgender people were murdered, lynched, and hanged because of who they were.
Over 1,000 black people were killed by the police over the last four years
Hate crimes against black people and other minorities has risen by 61% to a 16-year high since Trump took office
It is obvious that ALL lives do not matter. It is obvious that we have a culture of hate, racism, and bigotry in this country. It existed before Trump but has been allowed to flourish under him and in many ways, he promotes it and at the very least, ignores it.
In other ways all lives do not matter too.
The rights of these minority groups have been attacked by the current administration too.
Just yesterday, transgender rights in healthcare were removed by this president. He has been the most anti-transgender and anti-LGBTQ in history and his racism has been evident too. He and the system as a whole have proven that all lives do not matter and while the police system that is racist in many ways has gone on for quite some time, it has become much worse under this president.
All lives DO NOT matter but it is time that they DO!
