Black Lives Matter — Modern Moon Life

To get to All Lives Matter, Black Lives must Matter the Most

The world, especially in America, is going through a much-needed change. At the middle of that change are two seemingly opposed mantras: Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter. How they aren’t seen as saying the exact same thing I will never understand, but here is how I rationalize that to say both, we can only say Black Lives Matter.

Black Lives Matter needs to be the rallying cry right now because, to a larger group of people than I ever realized, they don’t.

Black Lives Matter because if they don’t, NO lives matter. The irony is that to say All Lives Matter is to leave out the “others” - BIPOC, LGBT+, and millions on the spectrum of in-between.

Black Lives Matter is to lift up the most marginalized group. Black Lives Matter MEANS that All Lives Matter because all lives can’t matter without black lives.

It’s a paradox, a conundrum, something that feels like it should be one thing but it actually another. Which is why it’s powerful.

par·a·dox

/ˈperəˌdäks/

noun

a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well-founded or true.

Black Lives Matter because Police lives matter, especially to their families who are at home worried about their loved one’s safety. But that is why Black Lives must matter first. The police won’t have anything to “fight” when that is true. They will have criminals of all races to persecute - there is always a shadow side in society - but it won’t be done as a BUSINESS. Again. Another paradox.

Black Lives Matter because the feeling of terror the families of police are feeling now in it’s acuteness are the feelings a black mother or a mother of a black child feels every time their child leaves the house. There is no respite. No going back to normal for them. This feeling is normal.

Black Lives must matter first for communities to thrive in total inclusivity. And communities must thrive for a defunded police system to work. And a defunded, re-thought policing structure must work before All Lives will truly matter.

So, for now, to mean All Lives Matter, you can say Black Lives Matter and we will understand that you are living All Lives Matter in your heart. And, in the end, isn’t that the place you want to be the most honest?

Black Lives Matter.

Disclosure: I am white, I am writing this to hopefully help translate for people who may look like me, but think differently. I encourage you to read directly from Black authors whenever possible. Here is the medium page on Black Lives Matter.