I think it’s been a long enough time that we need to have refresher on the origin of Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter. I see a lot of people who say Blue Lives Matter because they genuinely are saying they appreciate police and dont want them to be harmed. And that’s great to feel that way. I feel that way. I dont want harm to police. Not one bit. But when you say Blue Lives Matter, I think many people are not realizing or forgetting why Blue Lives Matter became a slogan. So why was it created?
It was created as a misinterpreted reaction to Black Lives Matter. It was created to literally overshadow the slogan Black Lives Matter. Because the creators thought that Black Lives Matter meant Black Lives Mattered MORE than cops. Or more than whites. Or more than anyone else.
And that is wrong. Drastically wrong.
The slogan Black Lives Matter began shortly after the acquittal of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman, if you dont remember, racially profiled 17-year old Trayvon Martin, stalked him, confronted him with a gun, and killed him. He thought Trayvon looked suspicious.
So when Zimmerman went free, people were obviously outraged. They felt like black people were getting killed for no reason other than being black. And based on our country’s history, they had a point. So they started screaming “hey, stop profiling us. Stop killing us. We matter too!”
We matter too.
Black lives matter too. No other race in america is killed more, jailed more, accused more simply for the color of their skin. So they started yelling BLACK LIVES MATTER.
And, proving their point, someone got offended and was threatened by their demand to be equal. So All Lives Matter was born. And then Blue Lives Matter. All because they didnt understand why black people were saying they mattered and to stop killing them.
It was not because Black Lives mattered more than Blue Lives. It was black people simply wanted to stop being killed because the color of their skin.
And every time you say Blue Lives Matter or All Lives Matter, especially to protest Black Lives Matter, you remind everyone how far we still have to go.
