Objection Analysis: Do Black Lives Matter?

On the Matter of Black Lives

Question: Do Black Lives Matter?

Objection 1: No, All Lives Matter. Just saying that Black Lives Matter overlooks the importance of other kinds of people. We should be working collaboratively to confront social issues.
Objection 2: No, Black Lives Matter is terrorist organization that calls for the murder of police officers throughout the United States..
Objection 3: No, Blue Lives Matter. We need to support law enforcement and protect against false narratives about law enforcement officials.

On the contrary: None of these objections answer the basic question of whether the lives of black citizens matter, but instead diverts attention from the original issue.

I answer that: Black lives do matter. Period.

Reply to objection 1: Saying that Black Lives Matter does not inherently take away from the value of any other person’s life. And frankly, Black people shouldn’t have to reference every other group before acknowledging themselves. For example, no one crashes a Breast Cancer Awareness rally to say “but what about all of the other diseases?” No one would say that having a Breast Cancer Awareness rally overshadows the other diseases. Everyone knows that the other diseases exist and need to be addressed, but during the Breast Cancer Awareness rally is not the time to highlight this. Likewise bringing attention to issues that affect the black community is not the time to shout “but what about the other communities.” Herein

lies the issue with a “colorblind” mentality, which can suffocate and invalidate the identity/experience of individual persons.

Reply to objection 2: This objection blatantly engages in the fallacy of composition.

Those who ascribe to this objection attribute the extreme actions of a couple of people loosely associated with Black Lives Matter to the intent of the entire Black Lives Matter movement. One cannot infer something that is true of a part of the whole as true of the whole. This is logically fallacious. Black Lives Matter cannot be considered a terroristic organization only because some supporters have carried out extremist

actions.

Reply to objection 3: There is no such thing as a blue life. Occupations are chosen. This movement is just a reaction to Black Lives Matter (as seen by the chosen title), which much like All Lives Matter, misses the point. Our officers should be respected as officers, but at the end of the day a person signs up to be an officer, choosing to take on a level of risk and higher standard in order to keep general order in the society. People do not sign up for the risks associated with being a minority. To liken black lives to occupation, is an example of false equivalence and this particular instance can be rooted in a historical flippancy towards the concerns of Black people in this country. Notice that there is no impulse to say “all lives” in response to “blue lives.”