All Lives Matter

[Edwardo Piet]

I used to be an "All Lives Matter" proponent because my egalitarian beliefs automatically want to push for equality over focused inequality. I changed my mind when I read a really good (at least in my opinion) metaphor, which I'll repeat in a moment. Suffice to say, "All Lives Matter" is the overall goal, nobody disputes that. The reason the "Black Lives Matter" movement exists is to focus on the fact that at this moment in time, black lives are treated, or at least are seen to be treated as less valuable.

So anyway, onto the metaphor that changed my mind:

Suppose you are at a family dinner, and the patriarch / matriarch is serving up dessert. He/she heaps a portion of dessert onto everyone's plate except for your own. You complain "Hey, I didn't get any dessert, I should get some too." The rest of the family looks at you and hushes you. "EVERYONE should get dessert" they say.

The underlying point is that you're still left without dessert, but your family are too focused on the overall issue of everyone getting dessert to even notice / care about your plight.

It's fine to be egalitarian about things, and recognize that inequality affects most people in some way, but sometimes you need to view things through a narrow lens. You can't solve every inequality at once, so you need to do them one by one. That's why multiple groups exist.

That analogy makes zero sense to me, because clearly the family does not understand the point of "everyone should get dessert".  

All lives matter to me because clearly I believe all lives on this planet matter, not just one set of lives segregated by the phrase "Black Lives Matter".

Hmmm.

From now on I shall definitely be referring to you as either Mister Obtuse or Captain Myopic but I can't decide which

---

By saying "all lives matter", you're glossing over the fact that going by how the police interact with blacks in America, their lives would seem to have less value to the police. "Black lives matter" is, in this context, a badly needed reminder, not a dismissal of the lives of non-blacks.

Sensitive much?

Yep.

I mean, the whole point is that "all lives matter" includes black lives matter. Being hypersensitive to "Don't forget us!"and misinterpreting it as "We're all that matters!" is so inane.

If all doors were supposed to remain locked at night but everyone neglected to lock automatic doors then saying "automatic doors should be locked" wouldn't mean "stop locking all other doors and only lock automatic doors", lol. It would mean people are forgetting about the automatic doors. Saying that "black lives matter" means "only black lives matter" is as silly as saying that "automatic doors should be locked at night" means "stop locking all doors apart from automatic ones." lol.

P.S. I deliberately made the analogy involve objects rather than persons because I believe that it's easier for people to think clearly and without bias when they depersonalize their metaphors.It's so much easier to think rationally and be objective about objects than it is about people. Because whose gonna get emotional about automatic doors? Lol.