The problem with #alllivesmatter – it’s not an original idea

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

I was bothered by the #alllivesmatter retort to the #blacklivesmatter movement, but I couldn’t pin-point why.

The obvious problem wasn’t lost on me. #alllivesmatter is not a new idea, it’s a reaction to an idea, and that diminishes its worth, as I see it. It’s also misconstrued. It’s a knee-jerk answer to a misunderstanding. Let’s remove the hashtag for a moment (I find them annoying) and take the sentence as a thing of itself: Black lives matter.

It’s a simple declarative sentence that leaves little room for misunderstanding.

Except when placed in the context of 2016 politics. In today’s political atmosphere it needs an explanatory setting, or at least an extra word for defenition because what’s being said is not what’s being heard by some.

Let’s add a word. Only Black lives matter. That’s what the folks who retorted with #alllivesmatter hear.

Here’s another version. Black lives matter too. This is what the movement folks are saying.

#contextmatters

I saw a meme on social media today that put the Christian scripture’s beatitudes in the #alllivesmatter context. It was a rendering of Jesus with a telling hand held high, saying “blessed are the poor . . . ” The retort from the crowd is “blessed are all lives, Jesus.” Perfect, I thought.

That’s when clarity, or something like it (it could have been the caffeine from the green tea) hit me. #alllivesmatter is incomplete in its context.

If you’re going to retort with a hashtag don’t limit yourself to the retorted idea. If you’re serious that all lives matter, then go all the way with it, or admit that it’s a limited reaction to a needless indignation, and that as such it comes across as condescending.

Here’re some prompts to get you started:

• Fourteen-point-eight percent of people in the U.S. live below the poverty line. #alllivesmatter
• The yearly U.S. cancer mortality rate is 171.2 per 100,000. #alllivesmatter
• In 2015, 12,942 people were killed in the United States in a gun homicide, unintentional shooting, or murder/suicide. #alllivesmatter
• The infant mortality rate in the U.S. is 6.2. #alllivesmatter
• The U.S. ranks 27th in student mathematics performance. #alllivesmatter
• The U.S. ranks 17th in student reading performance. #alllivesmatter
• The unemployment rate for Latino/as  (I’m not into the “x” thing*) between 16 and 19 years of age is 21.4. #alllivesmatter

You see where I’m going with this, add your own issue, there are plenty that affect all lives. But do me a favor, quit using it as a facile retort to something you misunderstood – you’re wasting valuable social media space. #allmemesmatter

*Here’s my basic problem with Latinx – I get tangled in the extended pronouns: if I explain it to my male friend, how will I know hx understands?