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A note on Black Lives Matter
5 years ago
Just offering a bit of insight that may help you in dialog with any of your friends/family that you may want to try and enlighten to the situation that's unfolding (and has been unfolding for decades) in terms of awareness, sensitivity and overall understanding.
When you are communicating to someone and they say something that comes off as "Ignorant" like when someone says "ALL LIVES MATTER!" rather than calling them ignorant or belittling them: take a moment and understand that it may NOT be this person's fault for saying/thinking things like that. Not everyone can wrap their heads around this situation and least of all anyone who has never struggled with being a Person of Color (POC for those of you who are now learning the lingo). The wisdom and insight that I am offering is to take into consideration that instead of beginning your response on the offensive; attempt to educate and teach. This may require PATIENCE on your part, yes. This may require you to bite your tongue more than you'd like to BUT if you actually make a breakthrough by approaching the situation diplomatically; it will have a far greater chance of success and be much more likely to take hold.
Please keep in mind, you may need to spin your perception (I say perception instead of "Argument" because again, trying to use diplomatic phrasing) a few different ways in order to help them understand.
As an example, the best analogy I have come up with in regards to the reply of "but all lives matter!" is
"The unfortunate part is the perception we have had ingrained into us, twists our views and responses towards self-preservation instead of inclusion. So when I say "Water Matters" and you respond "But what about Air and Food and shelter?" Do you really think I don't think those matter? It's not about exclusion, it's about inclusion. You need ALL forms of sustenance to survive just like you need all children of color to have equality for our planet to survive."
So please, keep in mind everyone; approach the situation diplomatically, give them the benefit of the doubt that perhaps they haven't had someone caring enough to educate them instead of jumping down their throat. If your force their walls up, you'll just be talking to a wall.
When you are communicating to someone and they say something that comes off as "Ignorant" like when someone says "ALL LIVES MATTER!" rather than calling them ignorant or belittling them: take a moment and understand that it may NOT be this person's fault for saying/thinking things like that. Not everyone can wrap their heads around this situation and least of all anyone who has never struggled with being a Person of Color (POC for those of you who are now learning the lingo). The wisdom and insight that I am offering is to take into consideration that instead of beginning your response on the offensive; attempt to educate and teach. This may require PATIENCE on your part, yes. This may require you to bite your tongue more than you'd like to BUT if you actually make a breakthrough by approaching the situation diplomatically; it will have a far greater chance of success and be much more likely to take hold.
Please keep in mind, you may need to spin your perception (I say perception instead of "Argument" because again, trying to use diplomatic phrasing) a few different ways in order to help them understand.
As an example, the best analogy I have come up with in regards to the reply of "but all lives matter!" is
"The unfortunate part is the perception we have had ingrained into us, twists our views and responses towards self-preservation instead of inclusion. So when I say "Water Matters" and you respond "But what about Air and Food and shelter?" Do you really think I don't think those matter? It's not about exclusion, it's about inclusion. You need ALL forms of sustenance to survive just like you need all children of color to have equality for our planet to survive."
So please, keep in mind everyone; approach the situation diplomatically, give them the benefit of the doubt that perhaps they haven't had someone caring enough to educate them instead of jumping down their throat. If your force their walls up, you'll just be talking to a wall.
I also agree that just moving to attack does not help to educate them, and that even if we feel anger toward them, we should instead try to better them and show them HOW to better themselves, as they may have never been taught.
Anger only breeds more anger.
There is no room for giving the benefit of the doubt, beause the second someone says anything remotely against a person's side it's *RAWR MAUL MAUL*
Which is kinda why there such massive divides between people, nobody wants to talk, they just wanna shout down the other side...
just accept the fact this isn't a racial problem and we need to stop creating a racial divide over it or it will never get solved.
is this ...
While there is a large group of people that mean " Black Lives Matter TOO " when they say it ... is is also a group who mean " ONLY Black Lives Matter " and those are the people that the " All Lives Matter " statement was being used on.
I am a Non-Racist white person that has been told by people that don't know anything about me, my life, my beliefs, my friends, my family, and my ancestry that I AM racist purely because I am White and that I'm not allowed to defend myself when someone is chanting " Kill all the white Babies "...
Like that is literally racism that I've had thrown in my face and if I accept it than I'm racist because they said I am, if I deny it I'm racist because I'm not accepting it, and if I defend myself OH BOY am I racist for arguing...
I don't like this Idea that I lose no matter what ... and that's why when I'm told I can never understand another race's point of view ... Dude I'm human , Empathy is something we have ... I can understand it. I'm mostly Scottish and Irish and my Ancestors sure in the Hell could understand it considering the oppression they dealt with under English rule and when coming to the US in the 1800's.
Sigh.. I could ramble all day , but the point is not everyone is racist or ignorant when they say " All Lives Matter " ... because they could be coming from a place of having had to deal with the Ill meaning people of the BLM movement ... because like with all Well meaning movements , no matter how well intended the majority of the group, there are and will be people that are bad eggs using the movement to spread their own hate.
Everyone 'can' be racist, but not everyone 'is' and no one 'needs' to be...
Just understand that the meaning behind BlackLivesMatter is: for fuck sake, just help us get at least to your level and then ALL lives will matter EQUALLY. That's the real message. White people just have to learn to let someone else have the spot light for once. I've seen some videos where a black person was being interviewed and a white person was offering additional insight and ended up sharing the screen: that was disheartening because even though the first gentleman may have been struggling with his message; it wasn't for the white guy to steal the spotlight. Let them have their moment so we can finally get to the point where we're sharing the stage equally <3
So if he is .... well I hope he's not
if he isn't, good
but either way I refuse to get dragged into a 4Chan style fight because of it, so I'm just going to walk away before that happens XD