I mean, I know that’s not new news. They’ve always been dying. They were dying when we kept them as property. They were dying when we desegregated. And they’re dying now, even when on paper they’re supposed to have the same rights as us.
I’m as white as White people come. The glow-in-the-dark, lobster the moment I see the sun variety. I don’t know shit about the Black person’s experience. And guess what, fellow White person? Neither do you.
We don’t fear for our lives whenever we walk down the street. We don’t constantly get told, directly or otherwise, that we’re second class. We don’t know what it’s like to have to teach our children to be afraid of those that are supposed to help us. We don’t know what it’s like to still be a threat when we’re already pinned down and helpless.
See, when we go on killing sprees, people chalk it up to mental illness and discuss all the ways they’ve could’ve helped us before we snapped. They detail our lives, trying to figure out where society went wrong. When we rape people, we’re given light sentences and sympathy, lest a harsher punishment wreak havoc on our gentle souls. Even when we suck, we have privilege oozing out of our asses. And when we get killed, society looks for someone to blame rather than wondering what we did to deserve it.
So yes, all lives matter, but our lives have never been the ones at risk. We were born knowing we mattered, and quite literally every system of society has gone ahead and confirmed that for us repeatedly throughout our lives. Even you, broke White person. Even you. So let’s do a favour and fuck right off with our whiny “what about me?” rhetoric. I know it’s super hard when everything ever has always been about us and now for once in our silver-spooned lives this conversation isn’t. Fuck off anyway – our fragile, privileged hearts will get over it. I promise.
Oh and while we’re at it, let’s stop looking for the isolated incidents where we actually were targeted and acting like that’s totally the same thing as a society of systemic-built oppression and racism, m’kay? We don’t have to worry our pretty little heads – society already cared more about those incidents anyway. Because, oh right, our lives were already valued more than our friends of colour. Tell me again how all lives matter? Perhaps we can say that when it’s actually true.
For now, wake the fuck up. Black people are dying. Stop telling them how they get to react to that. Stop telling them it’s not fair that they don’t care about us – as if that’s what they were implying or that we ever truly cared about them. Sit the fuck down, shut the fuck up. Listen for once. Listen to understand. Recognize that we don’t. Ask how we can be good allies. Ask how we can help. And figure out, once and for all, that Black Lives Matter doesn’t mean that White lives don’t. Indeed, White lives were the only thing that ever did. I’d be pissed off, too.
“#BlackLivesMatter doesn’t mean other lives don’t. Like people who say “Save The Rainforests” aren’t saying “Fuck All Other Types of Forests” – Matt McGorry
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