The difference between Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter | Guest Opinion

If you’re asking yourself, “Why am I getting unfriended for saying #AllLivesMatter whenever my friends say #BlackLivesMatter?” then this message is for you.

I want to make this article short and to the point so that people can spread the message faster and with a better understanding as to why the seemingly innocuous, almost pious sounding hashtag “All Lives Matter” is a heartless and insensitive response to anyone posting the actual pious hashtag globally known and respected as “Black Lives Matter.”

For the record, everyone you see posting or speaking the words #BlackLivesMatter already has the moral clarity and understanding that all lives matter. That which is a given does not require acknowledgment or a global protest.

Simply put, #BlackLivesMatter is a protest to end police brutality and murder against Black people. Period.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, here’s a short story. In March of 2007, the controversial Kansas-based church known as Westboro Baptist came to Pasco to protest the funeral of a local fallen Marine.

They had disgusting words and messages emblazoned upon their rainbow-colored picket signs. I won’t even repeat their messages here but they were derogatory remarks made toward our friends in the LGBTQ community.

That alone was soulless, but the fact that this church protested at a funeral while a family and community were grieving was seen as beyond heartless by all. So much so, the Westboro Baptist Church was sued for over $10 million due to the pain and suffering that they caused the bereaved.

Westboro Baptist Church believes that they are holy and that their message is divine, while those in attendance at the funeral see them as heartless human beings incapable of the basic level of empathy — allowing someone to grieve in peace.

So when you say #AllLivesMatter whenever we say #BlackLivesMatter, you look like Westboro Baptist Church to us. You are causing more pain and suffering.

Please stop.

We are grieving multiple funerals. Show some decency and respect. There are coffins in our hearts that we haven’t buried yet, like Gordon Whitaker. His Black life mattered, and we can’t properly heal until accountability and justice become the new norm.

#BlackLivesMatter is not only a protest, but a way to inform the world that we are grieving another Black death in a long line of Black deaths that never received justice and our healing process cannot begin until we are able to grieve these Black deaths.

It should be noted here that injustice delays the healing process for those of us that feel each and every single one of these Black deaths. I am writing this article on #BreonnaTaylors birthday (June 5) #SayHerName #BlackLivesMatter. She was killed by police on March 13. She would’ve been 27 years old.

Black life matters because Black life is not receiving justice.

There’s so much more that can be said on this subject, but I find it necessary to inform you of the insensitive impact you are having on your family and friends and on the entire Black community.

Let us grieve in peace because I wish we could sue people for $10 million each and every time they hold up those cold-hearted-hashtag-picket signs at us.