#NotAllLives

Written by Cathoel Jorss, published 4 years ago

Thinking this afternoon about the insulting phrase All Lives Matter, and its to me clear and obvious translation: “Black Lives Do Not Matter to Me.” It seems to me we may need an alternative explanatory phrase for those who are unwilling to get it. Something like this:

White lives matter too much. White lives are going to have to be valued less, so that black lives can matter enough.
We cannot level the playing field without giving up privilege, if we have it.

It reminds me of the idea that All Life is Sacred, and other such phrases used by forced birthing advocates to render women into breeding boxes. This prefaces the life of the unborn foetus over the life of the labouring mother. “All Lives Matter” zooms out so far it is a sentimentalising sepia soft focus: if we keep telling ourselves we are practicing Universal Love, we can save ourselves the difficult and exacting work of again and again learning to love the individual and faceted real human next to us.