RE: Statues, Monuments, and Monsters, OH MY... I introduce the "Nose of history".
We have had this conversation plenty. But I have evolved my thinking, so I wanted to send some more thoughts back your way about this...
The problem I have with All Lives Matter is that minorities, especially blacks, were enslaved and generally regarded as 2nd class citizens by the majority of whites for hundreds of years in the US.
All Lives Matter seems to be very unsympathetic to that.
BLM is nothing more than sympathy for those of a certain race, who are less fortunate due to their race.
BLM has never tried to indicate that ONLY black lives matter. Rather, they are just trying to call out an entire nation and Government for hundreds of years of unjust treatment towards a specific race.
By saying All Lives Matter, it feels like you are just trouncing on their point, in order to make your own point, that I don't think anyone disagrees with.
I really do not see how you disagree with BLM.
This is what makes it feel like you just want to disagree with them.
And it should be. There are no living slaves from that era. Every race has been enslaved at some time in history.
You either want equal treatment, or you want special treatment. You will not end racism by emphasizing a race. That just perpetuates the cycle.
I see Black Lives Matter as doing a lot of harm. Why? Sure the founders supposedly had a legit reason for forming it and I believe they simply made a mistake in emphasizing Black when we should emphasize that ALL lives matter. If a black man is shot unjustly... All lives Matter! If a white man is shot unjustly... All lives matter! If a latino woman is shot unjustly... All lives matter!
Removing black from the name does not change the message unless the intent is to leave the label open for subjective interpretation. There are quite a number of people that have been interpreting BLM exactly how I was concerned they would interpret it. As justification to be racist themselves. Some of the founders of BLM have actually been caught promoting racism. I do think it is only one or two of the original members, and I don't have a link right now as I saw that many months ago.
I believe I explained my stance on this in the article.
BLM to me is creating fires and division rather than creating solidarity/unity. I would say the media and what has happened since it was created is showing this to be the case.
I also am coming to believe what they were calling a BLACK thing and thus emphasizing race wasn't predominantly caused by race. Sure there have always been racist people, and there will always be racist people as long as people continue to group up themselves and other people and be interested in racially identifying them.
It is looking like poverty, population density, and cultures might be as much and possibly more of a factor than race. Yet there is so much emphasis on race that the actual factors more likely to be the cause seem to be ignored or not even thought of.
I also don't see positive results from BLM unless your goal is to start a race war. I blame a lot of that on the media. If it bleeds it leads, and they seem very interested in emphasizing things that can cause division.
Their point can be made with All Lives Matter just as easily. Yet at least All Lives Matter you don't have others that then take a word like BLACK and use that to justify further racism. It is divisionary. I actually initially supported what they were doing as I GOT what the initial message was supposedly about. Yet, I watched how subjectively it could be interpreted due to the label and how some used it for justification for racism, often violently so. That is when I started having problems. That is when I first thought All Lives Matter. I actually thought it on my own before I saw it anywhere else. Then I saw people claiming it was detracting from their message. Unless their message is a need for special treatment rather than equality and thus is a racist message then I disagree strongly and believe that is completely wrong.
It has continued to increasingly inspire exactly the results those of us that think All Lives ACTUALLY Matter were concerned that it might, with the gleeful help of the media.
I completely respect your answer my friend and thank you for your patience.
However, indicating that such minorities do not deserve special treatment, still feels very cold. They were enslaved far more recently and in this country, by this very same Government in power today. Generally speaking, families in power tend to stay in power, creating what they feel is very uneven playing grounds due to their grand parents, and great grandparents, and so on. These kinds of social problems don't go away over night and people become a product of their environment.
Is that really worth zero sympathy?
Doesn't the same thing apply to women? They just got their rights more recently too.
You can have equality, or you can have special treatment. You cannot have both. They are mutually exclusive.
Sometimes reality is cold. Fuck safe spaces. :)
Special treatment is a slippery slope.
Nothing to do with sympathy. I don't believe special treatment is helping them. It is fake. It is moving the problem from one location to another. It is kicking the can down the road.
There are some special treatment situations I'll support such as wheel chair accessibility ramps, and things like that.
Yet I don't believe they should be mandatory or expected. You know me I am a voluntarist.
I believe in equal opportunity and that doors should be open to people. That doesn't mean I should have to carry them through the doors.
It also doesn't mean they should get access to special doors that the rest of us do not. That is not equality.
That leads to the same problem they themselves were originally complaining about it just shifts the target. This is why I refer to it as kicking the can.
Treat people equal. Meaning do not tell them they cannot take advantage of an opportunity. They can try just like everyone else.
Some things we are good at others we are not.
Simply no doors should be closed due to race/skin color.
I actually say no doors should be closed due to any form of bigotry.
Special Treatment doesn't help that... it perpetuates the cycle.
But their point is that things are not equal. Even though you want everyone to be equal, that is not their reality. So I do not see how equality and special treatment are mutually exclusive. Sometimes, in order to make things equal, we need to grant special treatment. The world is not black and white, but shades of gray. I do not see any right or wrong answers here, so I refrain from saying that BLM is wrong.
Furthermore...
I disagree. They spoke up first with their concept of Black Lives Matter. All Lives Matter is a response to trump the BLM message. Not the other way around. If you had first created All Lives Matter, then some other folks trumped your message with Black Lives Matter... Then I would agree. But that is not the course of events as they happened.
Lastly, if someone abuses BLM's name, then that is on the person, not BLM. If you said that you disagree with how some people behave due to mis-understanding the ideology that BLM sends out, then I could agree. But that same problem will occur in any group we look at, not just BLM.