Offended at Black Lives Matter
How just mattering ruffles White feathers
“Black Lives Matter, Too” technically would have been a more accurate slogan, but it’s a bit of a marketing mouthful.
As the trial of George Floyd murderer Derek Chauvin enters week two, it’s a good time to reflect on why this simple phrase remains as important as ever. But even after the deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others, the phrase still causes angst for many White Americans.
You would think that the straightforward phrase “Black Lives Matter” would roll off the tongue smoothly. Yet the second it was chosen as the new phrase to advance the plight of Black and Brown people, the typical chorus of naysayers got worked up and offended.
The irony of it all is the same people who are so offended by the mere utter of the phrase Black Lives Matter are often the ones who keep telling the rest of us to stop getting so offended by everything.
To be sure, the phrase Black Lives Matter doesn’t even proclaim that Black people deserve equality, although they obviously do. The phrase doesn’t state that people of color deserve equity, although that’s long overdue as well. The phrase wasn’t like the LGBTQ community asking for equal rights — to be treated the same as straight folk.
