Yes, but…”All lives matter.”
This is the response by many people to the Black Lives Matter movement. What it signifies is the fact of white liberal gradualism, under the slavery of public opinion. Don’t say those words.
Refer to the Black Lives Matter supporters as “protesters,” changing the organization’s name into a euphemism. Refer to their name as a “slogan.”
It is more than than that.
Black Lives Matter is bigger than any 1960s protest. It is international and intergenerational. Its platform is expressed in about 35,000 words. There about 300 words in it with which I disagree. But that is inconsequential. We need to dismantle institutional racism in our society, and we need an avenue to come together again.
We need to stand up to injustice. When we dismantle systematic racism, then whites can have a conversation about those 300 words which some might find offensive… maybe more. Maybe over coffee.
The passion this time must be found in compassion. Our greatest strengths must be found in love, and defiance of despair.
Jahn Levitt, Laguna Beach
