who will be left to speak for you?
First, because I want to say a thing I think is important and I don’t want to be misunderstood: Black lives matter.
Of course all lives matter, but Black lives are at an unfair and unwarranted level of risk today in the US (and some other countries); that’s why we need the #Blacklivesmatter movement and slogan.
So I am trying to strengthen, not weaken, that movement’s ability to argue when I point out that some of its activists seem to have a far rosier picture of where society is right now on other issues than reality justifies.
In recent days I’ve seen people trying to explain why Black lives matter with claims like “You wouldn’t have walked into Orlando right after the shooting saying Straight lives matter!’ ” or “You don’t go to a breast cancer fundraiser and shout ‘What about other cancers?’ or ‘Heart attack victims matter too!’ ”
Sorry to say it, but yes. Yes, some people would say those things, because I’ve heard and seen them.
I’m not saying in any way that anyone should relax the fight to value black lives. I am REALLY not saying “You don’t have it so bad, other people have problems too.” Racism in the US is a real and desperate problem - I do believe we’ve come a long way, but we’ve still got miles to go. (And backlash is a problem too, in any advancement in social justice.) What I’m saying is, bigotry is out there and it’s widespread - don’t underestimate how many facets it has. Prejudices are intertwined. That’s why the fight for justice is personal for all of us - because if you let hatred go unchallenged today, it’s coming for you tomorrow.
ETA: Thinking about this a little more, now I’m in a logical bind - because I don’t believe everybody has to fight every issue, every time. None of us have infinite energy, and we’re each liable to be most effective fighting for the cause that speaks to us. So I’m not trying to imply that every #BlackLivesMatter activist needs to put in equal time on queer rights or vice versa, just trying to say that none of us can get away with saying “that cause doesn’t matter because it doesn’t affect me”. I think it has to be more like “I choose to put my energy here where I think my efforts matter most - but I respect the people fighting this other battle; they are my comrades in arms and I will support them and speak up for them.”
Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.