And this brings me to my take on BLACK LIVES MATTER. Yes, of course they do. And what that group experiences daily is sickening and we shouldn't be bothered about only when an extreme event happens. I'm as sickened by a store clerk assuming I was first despite a person of colour standing ahead of me in line as much as I am a cop chokes a black man to death without remorse because I don't believe any life is more important than any other and I can put myself in the shoes of that other person.
Unfortunately, the reality is that limiting any call for action to a single group just because we want to highlight the difficulty and threat that group lives with is by its very definition... limiting.
To combat the root causes of Black Lives Matter we need to focus on the overlap, the commonality, they have with everyone. And while examples outside the black community are more difficult to find in America there isn't a single issue Black Lives face that isn't in some way universal, but that isn't why we need to include everyone in this call to action.
It's because when you focus on the common overlay you remove the racism from it.
Simply put, I'm not black, and because black lives have it so hard I won't lie, I'm thankful I'm not black. But I am human, so what happens to black people in America doesn't affect me as it would someone in that community, but it affects me because I'm human.
And it's because of that commonality that it bothers me that police are killing anyone. PERIOD.
It bothers me that police are killing people they already have in custody. PERIOD.
It bothers me that police are violent and brutal with someone who is unarmed. PERIOD.
It bothers me that police are confrontational with someone minding their own business, or targeting anyone, anywhere, without cause. PERIOD.
None of which, in my opinion has anything to do with the colour of the skin of the victim. I don't care if they're black, Asian, Muslim or First Nations: they're human, and humans shouldn't be treated like that. PERIOD.
So if people are saying "ALL LIVES MATTER" because they know a white homeless guy down the street and his life is as important as a black man who was murdered by police, I get it, but you've got it all wrong.
I want the police to stop murdering PEOPLE. PERIOD!
And I don't care what colour their skin is. I want Police to stop violently restraining unarmed people, regardless of the colour of their skin. PERIOD!
I want police to stop pulling people over or stopping them on the street when they're not actually breaking the law, regardless of their skin. PERIOD!
Because regardless of that superficial identifier, all lives matter!
And until we broaden the scope of that call we'll never stop this problem, because the more you make it about one group instead of being an ALL problem, the easier it is for people outside that group to sit it out and say, "well, I'm glad that isn't me." or "I don't belong to that group so I don't know if I should speak up".
But it is you, because ALL lives matter! And the sooner everyone realizes that and calls on the government, the police and the courts to stop violating the rights of ALL humans we're never going to stop the constant assault on any one group of us.
Meanwhile, Muslims are treated like crap in places because of a few idiots in 2001; and Asians are being treated like crap now because of where a virus started, and all of this is wrong because those differences are as superficial as black skin and it's ALL born of the same problem. None of us get to be outside this problem, any problem! We're all human.
And if you still don't get THAT, then be prepared for things remaining exactly as they are, because we've been trying it your way for decades, if not centuries, and you've accomplished nothing and never will so long as you keep focusing on the differences!
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