ALL LIVES DON'T SEEM TO MATTER — AND THAT'S THE PROBLEM

As I sat at my desk contemplating what my blog post should be after such a long hiatus, I knew that I needed to post something about the climate in our country surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement.
 
If you can’t tell by my posts on social media, I’m an advocate for Black Lives Matter, which was not always the case. I used to be one of those people that wanted the whole story. But a strengthened relationship with God is truly what I think changed my mind about it all.

This is funny to me because it seems like a number of people who use this term “All Lives Matter” profess to be Christian’s themselves, while conveniently realizing they are acting much like the pharisees who killed Jesus, a man who only strove to do good.

Jesus was a man of color who was killed by the people with legal and political power in his time. It was the law that said it was wrong of Jesus to heal on the sabbath. It was the law that said Jesus was wrong to say he was God’s son. It was the law that said Jesus was wrong for saving the life of the adulterous woman.

And we as Christians read these verses and think of how awful the pharisees were to our savior, who was only trying to make the world a better place.

WHY "ALL LIVES MATTER" IS A FALLACY

Logically speaking, if not all lives are equal, they don’t all matter to the social majority. Right now, the social majority is experiencing a major shift, and it has been for the past several years. This is why you are seeing more people in support of Black Lives Matter today than you saw for the movement maybe 4 or 5 years ago.

I think the issue comes in the word “matter,” because this word holds different weight to different people. For me, my husband matters to me more than a stranger. Because we use this word to describe what means the most to us, people don’t tend to understand it when it is applied to a larger group of strangers.

For some, “matter” is a very passive word. Sure, it matters. For others, “matter” is a powerful word that had the power to lift someone up. You matter!
 
For the current social majority, which is being phased out for a different social majority, the word “matter” doesn’t have a huge meaning. That’s why it is difficult for them to understand that all lives cannot possibly matter to them if segmented groups of people are treated differently for various reasons, consciously or unconsciously.

WHAT LIVES DON’T SEEM TO MATTER

• Black Lives don’t seem to matter. There are 4.5 times more white people in the U.S. than there are black people. I encourage you to watch the minute-long video from TikTok creator @jolly_good_ginger  that explains why more members of the black community are impacted by police brutality than white people.
• Any Other POC’s Lives doesn’t seem to matter. So many Latinex communities have been rocked by racism in America. Being told to “go back to their country,” because they are Latinex, or being attacked or accused of things they didn’t do. The same goes for our Middle Eastern friends, especially following 9/11.
• LGBTQ+ Lives don’t seem to matter. One of the most heartbreaking things to learn about the LGBTQ+ community is just how many of them have parents who completely disowned them and refuse to support them as human beings. They will take a child they raised for 16 years and put them out on the street to be homeless. You can still absolutely love someone and still be confused or have questions about their experiences.​

• Unborn Babies’ Lives don’t seem to matter. I’ll probably lose some support from some of the people reading this at this point, but it needs to be said. A lot of children are aborted each year in our country. While some abortions are medically necessary or cases of rape or incest, the majority of them are for people who claim that they are not ready to have a child or who are financially unable to support a child. Our sex education system is beyond broken (mainly because many religious families don’t want their sexually curious teens learning about sex in school), and so is our adoption system. There are millions who are ready and willing to adopt, but it costs a fortune, and there are plenty of families who give their children happy lives without having a fortune to their name.
• Disabled and Chronically Ill People’s Lives don’t seem to matter. We have so many people who are impacted by this in our country. They are unable to get the medical care they need without going into debt, and they are always treated differently by employers, strangers, and even insurance companies.

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I could go on and on about the sectors of people whose lives don’t seem to matter to the social majority. You’d be reading for a lifetime. If I left out a marginalized group of people, it was either unintentional, or I’m not informed, so please feel free to leave some info in the comments. I hope this has brought some clarity to this phrase for you. The goal, one day, is for all lives to matter. But we have a long way to go before we realize that goal. Let’s work together to make it happen.