Student Contributor Essay:
Equality For One, Is Equality For None: A Complaint Against Racist Rhetoric
Throughout time, many opposing situations and movements have cause conflict in the modern world. Most recently is the Black Lives Matter movement versus the All Lives Matter movement. Black Lives Matter is a black rights activist organization that was founded in 2013. The organization as a whole is a response to police shootings, and became popular after major conflicts, such as the Trayvon Martin case. Although the organization Blacks Lives Matter has good intentions in protecting the lives of a minority group that has undergone struggle in the past, their movement is based on assumptions, false pretenses, and the dehumanization of other minority and majority groups whose lives matter equally as much as those supported by Black Lives Matter. In comparison, the opposing statement of “All Lives Matter” provides support for all groups both oppressed, privileged, majority or minority, in displaying a message that All Lives Matter, no matter one's race, class or gender.
The Black Lives Matter organization uses assumptions to justify their message that the black race is being dehumanized by the entirety of humanity. However, these assumptions further segregate the organization as well as the black community that they supposedly represent, because of the illusion of isolation that is created. A consensus among the organization and their supporters, both black and white, is that they are being systematically targeted through institutional racism. The organization describes the information as such on their website,
“Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.” (BlackLivesMatter.com).
This statement simply does not add up to the facts. Black-on-black murder rates are far higher than white-on-black murder rates according to FBI data from 2013.
Throughout time, many opposing situations and movements have cause conflict in the modern world. Most recently is the Black Lives Matter movement versus the All Lives Matter movement. Black Lives Matter is a black rights activist organization that was founded in 2013. The organization as a whole is a response to police shootings, and became popular after major conflicts, such as the Trayvon Martin case. Although the organization Blacks Lives Matter has good intentions in protecting the lives of a minority group that has undergone struggle in the past, their movement is based on assumptions, false pretenses, and the dehumanization of other minority and majority groups whose lives matter equally as much as those supported by Black Lives Matter. In comparison, the opposing statement of “All Lives Matter” provides support for all groups both oppressed, privileged, majority or minority, in displaying a message that All Lives Matter, no matter one's race, class or gender.
The Black Lives Matter organization uses assumptions to justify their message that the black race is being dehumanized by the entirety of humanity. However, these assumptions further segregate the organization as well as the black community that they supposedly represent, because of the illusion of isolation that is created. A consensus among the organization and their supporters, both black and white, is that they are being systematically targeted through institutional racism. The organization describes the information as such on their website,
“Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.” (BlackLivesMatter.com).
This statement simply does not add up to the facts. Black-on-black murder rates are far higher than white-on-black murder rates according to FBI data from 2013.
(Simpson).
According to the chart above which is directly from FBI data in 2013, black people and white people are both the biggest threats to their own race. Whites and blacks kill roughly as often as each other, but blacks consist of only 13% of the population. With the data we can see that the disproportionate arrests and incarceration are no surprise when this minority (blacks) are murdering their own race almost as much as a majority (whites) . The margin of difference between white-on-white murders and black-on-black murder is only 8%. “Their 40 percent representation among the prison population fairly reflects the proportion of crimes committed by blacks in the U.S. This is not evidence of institutional racism, but rather a social pathology evident within the black community.” (Simpson). The Black Lives Matter organization is the group that is creating this threat to all black people, because their mission is one that only further segregates them. This reverse racism is supported by experts in the field such as Ben Shapiro, “The Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t believe black lives matter, in fact they are the single greatest threat facing young black men.”(Ben Shapiro/TheDailyWire YouTube). Expert Ben Shapiro suggests that BLM does not even believe that black lives matter, because they threaten their very own supporters. Whether or not they do this intentionally is unknown, but the very fact remains that black lives are further threatened by BLM because of violence, and hatred that they incite. These real world events of division are very similar to events taking place in Aldous Huxley’s fictional text, Brave New World.
“Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly color. I'm so glad I'm a Beta." (Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 2)
This paragraph from Brave New World is reflected directly in the BLM organization and society as a whole today. People are characterized by race, class, and gender throughout the book as they are in life today. BLM is a major proponent in creating this division by acting as a domestic terrorist group. We have seen this repeatedly, whether it be at the Donald Trump rallies (most notably in Chicago this past week) or a protest of conservative speaking Ben Shapiro at a public university. The group uses violence and intimidation to pursue their political aims, but with evidence provided we can see that these aims are based purely on assumption.
The organization Black Lives Matter bases their claim on the presumption that African Americans are targeted by police. They believe racial profiling leads to dehumanization that allows for police brutality and shootings of African Americans. However, these claims are based falsely and do not align with data on police shootings. This is based largely on the percent of police shootings on African Americans and the representation of African Americans in the criminal justice system. One of the biggest issues expressed by Black lives Matter is the number of African Americans shot by police. This as seen in the data compiled by the Washington Post on police shootings from the January 2015 to March 2016. The data shows that in the 15 Months listed previously listed 1124 men and women were shot by police, of these 586 were Caucasian and 298 were African American. It shows that of all persons shot by police 52.1% are Caucasian and 26.5% are African American (Washington Post). This shows that almost twice as many Caucasians are shot in comparison to African Americans this is an example of how Black Lives Matter is based on false pretences as it is apparent that the police are not seeking out only African Americans as twice as many Caucasian men and women were shot by police than African American men and women in the 15 months of data collected. In addition to this, research reveals and explains why crime doesn’t break down on neat, proportionate demographic lines. Criminals are overwhelmingly male (police killed very few women this year, but no one argues that law enforcement is sexist), and violent criminals are disproportionately black. In fact, blacks “commit homicide at close to eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined”(National Review). Research shows that the reason that a large percentage of those African Americans who are shot are shot is their involvement in other violent crimes including homicide. This means that the number of African Americans shot by police is lower than it would be if it were proportional to the number of violent crimes committed by African Americans in comparison to those who are Caucasian. The survey shows how African Americans do not represent a majority of police shooting deaths, showing that in relation to other races when committing crimes, African Americans are not in an increased danger, and by saying that Black Lives Matter because of the inaccurate assumption of police targeting of African Americans they are showing a part of a possible problem relating to police shootings by only highlighting the shooting deaths they agree with while using race as a sole identifier. This is evident in Collins article regarding race, class and gender stereotypes, which details how oppression should not be divided or thought of as more or less prominent than other oppressed groups. She writes “we must be careful not to confuse this issue of the saliency of one type of oppression in people’s lives with a theoretical stance positing the interlocking nature of oppression”(Collins). This shows how by saying Black Lives Matter and only Black Lives Matter in relation to police shootings overshadows the problems relating to the shooting of Caucasians, Hispanics, other minorities and also the police risking their lives to protect innocent people who were being shot at before a police shooting ended a dangerous situation. All of these factors are influential in noticing the false pretenses that the organization Black Lives Matter is based on in trying to create a movement that inflates the problem relating to police shootings of African Americans while trying to overshadow the races shot and killed by police officers.
The “Black Lives Matter” movement claims to want equality for black people, however in its process to backup its claims, it dehumanizes other races by dividing and accusing them falsely. To further this, we must take a look at what dehumanization consists of. Dehumanization can contain deindividuation, which is seeing a person “as a member of a category or group rather than as an individual,” (Maiese). The Black Lives Matter movement claims that blacks are targeted by the police as a whole. The grouping of all individuals that work for law enforcement as racists, which is outrageous. It is actually an act of dehumanization by the Black Lives Matter movement because it is deindividuation against other groups of people. Another act of dehumanization is denying other people’s rights. The Black Lives Matter organization uses many tactics to get their message out, but one of these tactics includes “harassing white people by invading ‘white spaces’ and intimidating people trying to eat lunch,” (Greenfield). They are trying to recreate “sit-ins” which was a tactic used by civil rights activists to try to make space for themselves at a table. However, it is a tactic that is impeding on the rights of innocent white people just trying to eat lunch. Previously stated, the Black Lives Matter Movement believes they are the victims of institutional racism, more specifically law enforcement. While there are some rogue police officers, it is completely false to believe that the majority of cops are racist. What additionally causes The Black Lives Matter movement to lose credibility is that they are the ones who target and dehumanize the police.
“BLM activists in Minneapolis chanted, ‘pigs in a blanket, fry em' like bacon,’ as they marched down the street. This rhetoric also came just one day after the execution of Texas Sheriff Deputy Daron Goforth while he was filling up his patrol car at a local gas station. If you aren't familiar, ‘pigs in a blanket’ refers to the bodies of dead police officers in body bags.” (Pavlich)
The quote shows exactly how much respect the Black Lives Matter movement has for law enforcement. If that was not enough, The movement also supports a famous cop-killer from the 1970’s, Assata Shakur. “At a recent event for female bloggers, BlackLivesMatter leaders had a crowd of thousands repeating lines from a letter written by Shakur that include an explicit reference to the Communist Manifesto.” (Pavlich). The furthering of the idea that the Black Lives Matter movement is not only a racist group, but also dehumanizes other innocent people.
Although supporters of “Black Lives Matter” claim that their movement is to confirm the validity of black lives by combating racism, this idea is incorrect because they further segregate themselves and other groups of people from society by doing so. Black Lives Matter activists have claimed that their goal is “to convey, simply, that black people should be allowed to live without having to justify their existence” (Logan). However, the statement is contradictory because the Black Lives Matter movement itself is justifying their existence. Black Lives Matter is a segregation of black lives from other existing races. Combating the said segregation of black lives with yet another form of segregation will not be a solution to the issue at hand. Another reason why the Black Lives Matter movement is incorrect is because advocates claim that “black lives are deprived of our basic human rights and dignity” (Logan). Every citizen of the United States currently is deemed equal under the law. An example of this comes directly from the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. It states, “... Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” ("Our Constitution: Fourteenth Amendment") This proves that black lives are indeed not deprived of their basic human rights and dignity. It is understandable that racism does still exist in society, but claiming that only one race of lives matter does not help stop the conflict of racism.
On its face, the organization and movement known as Black Lives Matter works to protect a group who in the past has been denied the civil liberties guaranteed by the constitution. However, these civil liberties are meant for all people. The question that has been raised over time is: Why do blacks feel that they are being violated, and what can the All Lives Matter movement do to fix the issue at hand? All Lives Matter can impose a significant solution by making it so all races, including both blacks and whites, are treated as equal. Although the African American population has been denied their civil liberties in the past, it does not mean they are not equal to other races currently. The All Lives Matter movement works to help guarantee rights to everyone, and to help inform people that that no group should be less valuable or more valuable than another, rather than just one group of people.
Works Cited
"2010 Census Data." - 2010 Census. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
"Ben Shapiro: Do Black Lives Matter to Black Lives Matter?" YouTube. The Daily Wire, 3 Sept. 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
"Black Lives Matter Freedom & Justice for All Black Lives." Black Lives Matter RSS2. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
Collins, Patricia Hill. "MegaEssays.com." Patricia Hill Collins on Race, Class, and Gender Essays. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
"Fourteenth Amendment." U.S. Constitution A to Z (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Bros., 1946. Print.
"Investigation: People Shot and Killed by Police This Year." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
"It's Time to Call Out Black Racism." Frontpage Mag. N.p., 05 Aug. 2015. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
"Katie Pavlich - Exposing The Black Lives Matter Movement For What It Is: Promotion of Cop Killing." Townhall.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
Logan, Bryan. "Why Saying 'All Lives Matter' in the Context of the 'Black Lives Matter' Movement Touches a Nerve with Activists." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 28 July 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
Maiese, Michelle. "One Account. All of Google." Google Docs. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
"The Numbers Are In: Black Lives Matter Is Wrong about Police." National Review Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
Simpson, James. "Black Criminals, White Victims, and White Guilt." American Renaissance. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
"Six Important Takeaways from The Washington Post's Police Shootings Investigation." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
According to the chart above which is directly from FBI data in 2013, black people and white people are both the biggest threats to their own race. Whites and blacks kill roughly as often as each other, but blacks consist of only 13% of the population. With the data we can see that the disproportionate arrests and incarceration are no surprise when this minority (blacks) are murdering their own race almost as much as a majority (whites) . The margin of difference between white-on-white murders and black-on-black murder is only 8%. “Their 40 percent representation among the prison population fairly reflects the proportion of crimes committed by blacks in the U.S. This is not evidence of institutional racism, but rather a social pathology evident within the black community.” (Simpson). The Black Lives Matter organization is the group that is creating this threat to all black people, because their mission is one that only further segregates them. This reverse racism is supported by experts in the field such as Ben Shapiro, “The Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t believe black lives matter, in fact they are the single greatest threat facing young black men.”(Ben Shapiro/TheDailyWire YouTube). Expert Ben Shapiro suggests that BLM does not even believe that black lives matter, because they threaten their very own supporters. Whether or not they do this intentionally is unknown, but the very fact remains that black lives are further threatened by BLM because of violence, and hatred that they incite. These real world events of division are very similar to events taking place in Aldous Huxley’s fictional text, Brave New World.
“Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly color. I'm so glad I'm a Beta." (Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 2)
This paragraph from Brave New World is reflected directly in the BLM organization and society as a whole today. People are characterized by race, class, and gender throughout the book as they are in life today. BLM is a major proponent in creating this division by acting as a domestic terrorist group. We have seen this repeatedly, whether it be at the Donald Trump rallies (most notably in Chicago this past week) or a protest of conservative speaking Ben Shapiro at a public university. The group uses violence and intimidation to pursue their political aims, but with evidence provided we can see that these aims are based purely on assumption.
The organization Black Lives Matter bases their claim on the presumption that African Americans are targeted by police. They believe racial profiling leads to dehumanization that allows for police brutality and shootings of African Americans. However, these claims are based falsely and do not align with data on police shootings. This is based largely on the percent of police shootings on African Americans and the representation of African Americans in the criminal justice system. One of the biggest issues expressed by Black lives Matter is the number of African Americans shot by police. This as seen in the data compiled by the Washington Post on police shootings from the January 2015 to March 2016. The data shows that in the 15 Months listed previously listed 1124 men and women were shot by police, of these 586 were Caucasian and 298 were African American. It shows that of all persons shot by police 52.1% are Caucasian and 26.5% are African American (Washington Post). This shows that almost twice as many Caucasians are shot in comparison to African Americans this is an example of how Black Lives Matter is based on false pretences as it is apparent that the police are not seeking out only African Americans as twice as many Caucasian men and women were shot by police than African American men and women in the 15 months of data collected. In addition to this, research reveals and explains why crime doesn’t break down on neat, proportionate demographic lines. Criminals are overwhelmingly male (police killed very few women this year, but no one argues that law enforcement is sexist), and violent criminals are disproportionately black. In fact, blacks “commit homicide at close to eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined”(National Review). Research shows that the reason that a large percentage of those African Americans who are shot are shot is their involvement in other violent crimes including homicide. This means that the number of African Americans shot by police is lower than it would be if it were proportional to the number of violent crimes committed by African Americans in comparison to those who are Caucasian. The survey shows how African Americans do not represent a majority of police shooting deaths, showing that in relation to other races when committing crimes, African Americans are not in an increased danger, and by saying that Black Lives Matter because of the inaccurate assumption of police targeting of African Americans they are showing a part of a possible problem relating to police shootings by only highlighting the shooting deaths they agree with while using race as a sole identifier. This is evident in Collins article regarding race, class and gender stereotypes, which details how oppression should not be divided or thought of as more or less prominent than other oppressed groups. She writes “we must be careful not to confuse this issue of the saliency of one type of oppression in people’s lives with a theoretical stance positing the interlocking nature of oppression”(Collins). This shows how by saying Black Lives Matter and only Black Lives Matter in relation to police shootings overshadows the problems relating to the shooting of Caucasians, Hispanics, other minorities and also the police risking their lives to protect innocent people who were being shot at before a police shooting ended a dangerous situation. All of these factors are influential in noticing the false pretenses that the organization Black Lives Matter is based on in trying to create a movement that inflates the problem relating to police shootings of African Americans while trying to overshadow the races shot and killed by police officers.
The “Black Lives Matter” movement claims to want equality for black people, however in its process to backup its claims, it dehumanizes other races by dividing and accusing them falsely. To further this, we must take a look at what dehumanization consists of. Dehumanization can contain deindividuation, which is seeing a person “as a member of a category or group rather than as an individual,” (Maiese). The Black Lives Matter movement claims that blacks are targeted by the police as a whole. The grouping of all individuals that work for law enforcement as racists, which is outrageous. It is actually an act of dehumanization by the Black Lives Matter movement because it is deindividuation against other groups of people. Another act of dehumanization is denying other people’s rights. The Black Lives Matter organization uses many tactics to get their message out, but one of these tactics includes “harassing white people by invading ‘white spaces’ and intimidating people trying to eat lunch,” (Greenfield). They are trying to recreate “sit-ins” which was a tactic used by civil rights activists to try to make space for themselves at a table. However, it is a tactic that is impeding on the rights of innocent white people just trying to eat lunch. Previously stated, the Black Lives Matter Movement believes they are the victims of institutional racism, more specifically law enforcement. While there are some rogue police officers, it is completely false to believe that the majority of cops are racist. What additionally causes The Black Lives Matter movement to lose credibility is that they are the ones who target and dehumanize the police.
“BLM activists in Minneapolis chanted, ‘pigs in a blanket, fry em' like bacon,’ as they marched down the street. This rhetoric also came just one day after the execution of Texas Sheriff Deputy Daron Goforth while he was filling up his patrol car at a local gas station. If you aren't familiar, ‘pigs in a blanket’ refers to the bodies of dead police officers in body bags.” (Pavlich)
The quote shows exactly how much respect the Black Lives Matter movement has for law enforcement. If that was not enough, The movement also supports a famous cop-killer from the 1970’s, Assata Shakur. “At a recent event for female bloggers, BlackLivesMatter leaders had a crowd of thousands repeating lines from a letter written by Shakur that include an explicit reference to the Communist Manifesto.” (Pavlich). The furthering of the idea that the Black Lives Matter movement is not only a racist group, but also dehumanizes other innocent people.
Although supporters of “Black Lives Matter” claim that their movement is to confirm the validity of black lives by combating racism, this idea is incorrect because they further segregate themselves and other groups of people from society by doing so. Black Lives Matter activists have claimed that their goal is “to convey, simply, that black people should be allowed to live without having to justify their existence” (Logan). However, the statement is contradictory because the Black Lives Matter movement itself is justifying their existence. Black Lives Matter is a segregation of black lives from other existing races. Combating the said segregation of black lives with yet another form of segregation will not be a solution to the issue at hand. Another reason why the Black Lives Matter movement is incorrect is because advocates claim that “black lives are deprived of our basic human rights and dignity” (Logan). Every citizen of the United States currently is deemed equal under the law. An example of this comes directly from the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. It states, “... Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” ("Our Constitution: Fourteenth Amendment") This proves that black lives are indeed not deprived of their basic human rights and dignity. It is understandable that racism does still exist in society, but claiming that only one race of lives matter does not help stop the conflict of racism.
On its face, the organization and movement known as Black Lives Matter works to protect a group who in the past has been denied the civil liberties guaranteed by the constitution. However, these civil liberties are meant for all people. The question that has been raised over time is: Why do blacks feel that they are being violated, and what can the All Lives Matter movement do to fix the issue at hand? All Lives Matter can impose a significant solution by making it so all races, including both blacks and whites, are treated as equal. Although the African American population has been denied their civil liberties in the past, it does not mean they are not equal to other races currently. The All Lives Matter movement works to help guarantee rights to everyone, and to help inform people that that no group should be less valuable or more valuable than another, rather than just one group of people.
Works Cited
"2010 Census Data." - 2010 Census. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
"Ben Shapiro: Do Black Lives Matter to Black Lives Matter?" YouTube. The Daily Wire, 3 Sept. 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
"Black Lives Matter Freedom & Justice for All Black Lives." Black Lives Matter RSS2. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
Collins, Patricia Hill. "MegaEssays.com." Patricia Hill Collins on Race, Class, and Gender Essays. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
"Fourteenth Amendment." U.S. Constitution A to Z (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Bros., 1946. Print.
"Investigation: People Shot and Killed by Police This Year." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
"It's Time to Call Out Black Racism." Frontpage Mag. N.p., 05 Aug. 2015. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
"Katie Pavlich - Exposing The Black Lives Matter Movement For What It Is: Promotion of Cop Killing." Townhall.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
Logan, Bryan. "Why Saying 'All Lives Matter' in the Context of the 'Black Lives Matter' Movement Touches a Nerve with Activists." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 28 July 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
Maiese, Michelle. "One Account. All of Google." Google Docs. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
"The Numbers Are In: Black Lives Matter Is Wrong about Police." National Review Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
Simpson, James. "Black Criminals, White Victims, and White Guilt." American Renaissance. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
"Six Important Takeaways from The Washington Post's Police Shootings Investigation." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.
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