In Defence of All Lives Matter

[Rojava Free State]

All lives matter says we should look outside racist parameters and try to find a solution.

Black lives matter says that black people are special in their victimhood and including others takes away from that. They would rather maintain their victimhood than have a solution to their problems because the only way to resolve it is to treat the entire thing rather than just their corner of it.

It's like if someone was being mauled by a bear, they have mild lacerations on most of their body but their leg is ripped to shreds. Black Lives Matter is saying we need to fixate on the leg, All Lives Matter is saying we need to do something about the bear. Black Lives Matter wants us to bandage the leg while the bear is still mauling away, when we really need to get the bear situation resolved and then give them first priority in the triage of care afterward.

I get that Black Americans do not have the monopoly on suffering in America, but let's be real, Black Americans take on more than the lion's share (alongside our Indigenous communities)

My thing is, and i think that a lot of people who ID with BLM would say, is that by the time that Black Americans feel comfortable being black in USA, we will all be better off.

The systems that bring black people down often bring non-black poor people down as well, and once those systems are eradicated and replaced, working-class Americans (the vast vast majority of us) will be better off.

Why can't we just call the movement "stop killing unarmed people and do your job right police!"

[South Odreria 2]

I get that Black Americans do not have the monopoly on suffering in America, but let's be real, Black Americans take on more than the lion's share (alongside our Indigenous communities)

My thing is, and i think that a lot of people who ID with BLM would say, is that by the time that Black Americans feel comfortable being black in USA, we will all be better off.

The systems that bring black people down often bring non-black poor people down as well, and once those systems are eradicated and replaced, working-class Americans (the vast vast majority of us) will be better off.

Why can't we just call the movement "stop killing unarmed people and do your job right police!"

It should be called “protect and serve.”

[Rojava Free State]

Why can't we just call the movement "stop killing unarmed people and do your job right police!"

It should be called “protect and serve.”

I would just call it "Stop it, get some help."

[US-SSR]

DC Mayor renames street near White House, St. John's "Black Lives Matter Plaza." just sayin'.

[Aureumterra]

DC Mayor renames street near White House, St. John's "Black Lives Matter Plaza." just sayin'.

Orange Man DESTROYED by hero mayor with SOCIAL JUSTICE!

[Rojava Free State]

DC Mayor renames street near White House, St. John's "Black Lives Matter Plaza." just sayin'.

Orange Man DESTROYED by hero mayor with SOCIAL JUSTICE!

To be fair, Trump will probably get mad about it. It seems like everything pisses him off.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Orange Man DESTROYED by hero mayor with SOCIAL JUSTICE!

To be fair, Trump will probably get mad about it. It seems like everything pisses him off.

Good. Let the toddler be mad and throw tantrums. It’s amusing to see him lose his shit.

[Rojava Free State]

To be fair, Trump will probably get mad about it. It seems like everything pisses him off.

Good. Let the toddler be mad and throw tantrums. It’s amusing to see him lose his shit.

I never said it was a problem. I'm just saying the mayor of DC kinda did strike a blow to Trump, since I know his next press conference will begin with "YOU RUINED THE STREET OUTSIDE MY HOUSE! FUCK YOU"

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Good. Let the toddler be mad and throw tantrums. It’s amusing to see him lose his shit.

I never said it was a problem. I'm just saying the mayor of DC kinda did strike a blow to Trump, since I know his next press conference will begin with "YOU RUINED THE STREET OUTSIDE MY HOUSE! FUCK YOU"

Did I said you found it problematic, Rojava? No, I didn’t.

Yes, the DC mayor hit that pig where it hurts and I’m amused by it. Trump and his small dick energy.

[US-SSR]

An analogy from a commentator on a slightly unrelated subject, JK Rowling's odd comments on transgender people. Just sayin'. [emphasis added]

This is also similar to an obtuse argument put forth by detractors of Black Lives Matter, both the slogan and the hashtag. In bringing attention to black lives, the argument goes, aren’t protesters negating the importance of other, nonblack lives? Don’t all lives matter?

And sure, they do, but this correction is tantamount to the fire department showing up and methodically dousing every single house on the block before dealing with the one that’s actually burning. All houses matter, but some houses are in need of more pressing attention.

...the circumstances are vastly different — no group in American history has been so brutalized as the black people it enslaved — but the heartbreaking refrain is the idea that marginalized populations are asked, again and again, to explain their own humanity to people who somehow see this act as stealing.

[New Bremerton]

ALL LIVES MATTER. There. I said it.

African-Americans and European Muslims who erroneously believe they are being institutionally and systemically "oppressed" by "white supremacists" in some of the most liberal, progressive, and enlightened societies on Earth need to stop demanding special treatment and being OPENLY racist, antisemitic, and intolerant toward everyone else because "racism = power + prejudice" or some such woke BLM BS. BLM activists love to hide behind the very legitimate issue of police brutality and state violence, which affects everyone, especially poor people of ALL races, as a means to push their racist agenda of favoring black and brown people above everyone else via vindictive "reparations" and discriminatory "affirmative action" programs. To these people, not all lives matter.

All Lives Matter stands against police brutality against ALL races, not just white cops against black suspects. In HK, where young protesters fight for freedom, ALL lives matter irrespective of race or religion, not just those who support the CCP. In Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 1989, ALL lives mattered.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

ALL LIVES MATTER. There. I said it.

...

This is murder. This motherfucker must be tracked down ASAP and charged with two counts of murder. Bring back hanging. [Note to mods: I'm calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in the UK, not advocating mob violence.]

All lives matter unless you spit on a London transport employee.

[Ideal Britain]

I've read a lot of articles by pro-Black Lives Matter groups about why they don't like the phrase All Lives Matter, but I've never seen anyone defend the All Lives Matter phrase instead. I am curious to see what supporters have to say on the matter. On the one hand, I understand that racial profiling and police brutality may be an issue but on the other, I see that law enforcement is necessary for any non-Utopian society and most police officers risk life and limb to save lives, not end them.

Any supporters of All Lives Matter are welcome here.

So maybe you can explain how "Black Lives Matter" somehow implies that other lives don't.

It doesn't. If I say "I have rights" It does not mean you don't.
No government officials in the US act like white lives don't matter.

[Jedi Council]

ALL LIVES MATTER. There. I said it.

African-Americans and European Muslims who erroneously believe they are being institutionally and systemically "oppressed" by "white supremacists" in some of the most liberal, progressive, and enlightened societies on Earth need to stop demanding special treatment and being OPENLY racist, antisemitic, and intolerant toward everyone else because "racism = power + prejudice" or some such woke BLM BS. BLM activists love to hide behind the very legitimate issue of police brutality and state violence, which affects everyone, especially poor people of ALL races, as a means to push their racist agenda of favoring black and brown people above everyone else via vindictive "reparations" and discriminatory "affirmative action" programs. To these people, not all lives matter.

All Lives Matter stands against police brutality against ALL races, not just white cops against black suspects. In HK, where young protesters fight for freedom, ALL lives matter irrespective of race or religion, not just those who support the CCP. In Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 1989, ALL lives mattered.

We are living in liberal, progressive, and relatively enlightened countries, you are correct.

But we are also a flawed, imperfect society that has numerous issues, of which racism is just one.

People who say Black Lives Matter are not discounting the worth of others. No one in the BLM movement is saying that ONLY black lives matter. They are saying that we need our society to improve in order to live up to the claim that All Lives Matter.

A simple comparison can be seen in environmentalism. When people say "Save the Whales!" they are not saying "And fuck all other ocean life," that's just silly. Just as silly as saying BLM only wants black lives to matter.

Also, just to clarify, affirmative action is not racist. Period.

[Nakena]

Also, just to clarify, affirmative action is not racist. Period.

Funfact:

In Sweden, the Supreme Court has ruled that "affirmative action" ethnic quotas in universities are discrimination and hence unlawful. It said that the requirements for the intake should be the same for all. The justice minister said that the decision left no room for uncertainty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmati ... te_note-24

Sweden. Of all places.

[Jedi Council]

Also, just to clarify, affirmative action is not racist. Period.

Funfact:

In Sweden, the Supreme Court has ruled that "affirmative action" ethnic quotas in universities are discrimination and hence unlawful. It said that the requirements for the intake should be the same for all. The justice minister said that the decision left no room for uncertainty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmati ... te_note-24

Sweden. Of all places.

Yikes, what a terrible ruling.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

Funfact:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmati ... te_note-24

Sweden. Of all places.

Yikes, what a terrible ruling.

Hmm. I never thought racial/background quotas were a good idea. There's no way of broadly enforcing racial balance (say at a university) which doesn't discriminate individually. But maybe they can figure a way with disadvantage scholarships that don't mention race but have much the same effect. Maybe acceptable since on the individual level it would redressing the disadvantage.

Article says gender quotas in Sweden might be broken too.

[New Bremerton]

ALL LIVES MATTER. There. I said it.

...

This is murder. This motherfucker must be tracked down ASAP and charged with two counts of murder. Bring back hanging. [Note to mods: I'm calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in the UK, not advocating mob violence.]

All lives matter unless you spit on a London transport employee.

So the life of a London Tube employee, who BTW is black, doesn't matter? Are you seriously defending murderers now? Anyone, whether white, black, yellow or brown, who deliberately murders someone by spitting on them, is EQUALLY eligible for the death penalty. Their lives EQUALLY matter, and they can be EQUALLY forfeit.

Way to miss the fucking point with your complete nonsequitur and derailment NH2.

But we are also a flawed, imperfect society that has numerous issues, of which racism is just one.

I agree. I personally experienced racism at the hands of both white AND black people while I was studying in the UK. The incident involving hooded black youths across the street making Chinese noises at me was far more harrowing to me than the white, middle-aged guy on the bus who assumed I couldn't speak English and muttered "bloody Asians" down the phone at someone within clear earshot. The latter incident merely raised my temperature to boiling point. The former incident actually made me fear for my safety as a young, able-bodied man (feminists whining about women not being able to safely walk the streets at night should take note; men aren't safe either). But I have never once experienced actual, SYSTEMIC or INSTITUTIONAL racism at the hands of white people.

The smiling and friendly bus conductor who assumed I was Japanese and greeted me by saying "konnichiwa" wasn't being deliberately racist. The waiter in a rural English small town in East Anglia who spoke slowly so I could understand him wasn't being deliberately racist. The police officers who stopped and searched my school bag weren't singling me out on account of my race. I sensed no malice or ill-will from any of them. BLM activists may interpret such encounters as "microaggressions" and clear instances of systemic or institutional racism. They are not. To suggest that they are is pure paranoia. I think we're being really unfair to white people. In a world where BLM activists are in charge, all these people would be out of a job and literally forced to kneel before black and brown people. As an Asian, I will never kneel to anyone, white or black, and I won't demand that people kneel before me. It's like the struggle sessions and Cultural Revolution of Maoist China.

As I wrote on the "Merriam-Webster to redefine racism" thread, BLM activists seek to monopolize the English language by unilaterally redefining racism and sexism to specifically exclude white people, Jews, and men, and excuse overt anti-white racism, antisemitism, and misandry. They demand that companies, governments, and private individuals, including dictionaries of all things, adopt their Newspeak or else. This is racist.

They also insist that "words are violence" and "violent" speech justifies physical retaliation, making it abundantly clear to everyone where they and their fellow leftist travelers stand on the issue of free speech.

People who say Black Lives Matter are not discounting the worth of others. No one in the BLM movement is saying that ONLY black lives matter. They are saying that we need our society to improve in order to live up to the claim that All Lives Matter.

They say that. They're either lying or oblivious to their own geographic and circumstantial privilege. They need to show some fucking gratitude to their host countries instead of spiting the white people who fought and voted alongside them to abolish slavery, repeal Jim Crow laws, and consign racism and white supremacy to the dustbin of history. It was white people living in HK who gave me a good education and inculcated the very liberal, democratic, inclusive values that BLM activists are now twisting and appropriating to serve their own hateful, divisive agenda. Unlike these woke activists, I am grateful. They are not.

Also, just to clarify, affirmative action is not racist. Period.

Affirmative action is unequivocally racist and vindictive, especially when it causes Malaysian Indians, Asian-Americans, and indeed, many poor, white South Africans, to fall through the cracks. Collective punishment is a war crime according to the very international law that leftists hold dear. But it's ok if shit happens to white people (and Jews), amirite?

[New Bremerton]

Yikes, what a terrible ruling.

Hmm. I never thought racial/background quotas were a good idea. There's no way of broadly enforcing racial balance (say at a university) which doesn't discriminate individually. But maybe they can figure a way with disadvantage scholarships that don't mention race but have much the same effect. Maybe acceptable since on the individual level it would redressing the disadvantage.

Article says gender quotas in Sweden might be broken too.

I fully support quotas and scholarships for the economically disadvantaged irrespective of race or gender. That's what universities should be doing. And guess who stands to benefit the most? Black and brown people.

[Jack Thomas Lang]

I suspect one of the reasons All Lives Matter has received a visceral response is that it's one of the only ways one can respond to such a political slogan such "Black Lives Matter" without saying "durr no they don't" or "yes" (and in saying yes, seemingly accept all the political baggage that accompanies what on face value, should be an uncontroversial statement).

[The Alma Mater]

I suspect one of the reasons All Lives Matter has received a visceral response is that it's one of the only ways one can respond to such a political slogan such "Black Lives Matter" without saying "durr no they don't" or "yes" (and in saying yes, seemingly accept all the political baggage that accompanies what on face value, should be an uncontroversial statement).

If only they had opted for "black lives also matter"

[Nobel Hobos 2]

Hmm. I never thought racial/background quotas were a good idea. There's no way of broadly enforcing racial balance (say at a university) which doesn't discriminate individually. But maybe they can figure a way with disadvantage scholarships that don't mention race but have much the same effect. Maybe acceptable since on the individual level it would redressing the disadvantage.

Article says gender quotas in Sweden might be broken too.

I fully support quotas and scholarships for the economically disadvantaged irrespective of race or gender. That's what universities should be doing. And guess who stands to benefit the most? Black and brown people.

We agree then. I imagine putting a number on how disadvantaged a person is, and taking their school leaving mark, and putting both into a formula which decides if they get the place. Neither race nor gender would influence their "disadvantage score". But perhaps the quality of the school they went to should.

It can be justified thus: this is the school leaving mark they should have got, if they hadn't been disadvantaged from a young age.

To be really fair about it, extend the same formula for entry to highly advantaged students too!

[The Alma Mater]

An analogy from a commentator on a slightly unrelated subject, JK Rowling's odd comments on transgender people. Just sayin'. [emphasis added]

This is also similar to an obtuse argument put forth by detractors of Black Lives Matter, both the slogan and the hashtag. In bringing attention to black lives, the argument goes, aren’t protesters negating the importance of other, nonblack lives? Don’t all lives matter?

And sure, they do, but this correction is tantamount to the fire department showing up and methodically dousing every single house on the block before dealing with the one that’s actually burning. All houses matter, but some houses are in need of more pressing attention.

...the circumstances are vastly different — no group in American history has been so brutalized as the black people it enslaved — but the heartbreaking refrain is the idea that marginalized populations are asked, again and again, to explain their own humanity to people who somehow see this act as stealing.

The problem is that blacks indeed have it bad - but not the worst nor the only one in their category To use the house analogy: you have several house that are on fire, a fee houses where there is a little fire in the kitchen and a few that are fine now but at risk of the fire moving to them.
Black lives matter is interpreted as picking one of those burning houses randomly and ignoring the others, including the ones with children inside. Not the intent, but is how it is received.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

I think it was the analogy itself which burned to the ground there.

[The Alma Mater]

I think it was the analogy itself which burned to the ground there.

It was a bad one to begin with Doesn't help that there are people who chant black lives matter and actually are racist towards others (e.g. would never allow their daughter to marry a white boy).

Sadly, I do not have a better slogan.