Short answer:
Black Lives Matter does not mean only Black Lives Matter, it means Black Lives Matter too. When you see an advert for Cancer Research, do you feel angry because they haven't mentioned every illness? When a house is on fire do we throw water over everyone's house just to be fair?
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Longer answer:
People supporting the Black Lives Matter movement believe that all lives do matter. This is why they are working to change racist systems and make sure that black lives matter as much as all the other lives. Currently, with ongoing systemic racism, black lives are disproportionately more at risk or undervalued in most areas of society than their white counterparts. Facts, statistics and the personal experiences of black people living in this system provide unquestionable evidence of this.
Ask yourself: What are you trying to say when you deliberately say ‘it's not Black Lives Matter, it’s All Lives Matter’? If you truly think that all lives matter, in which other ways are you showing support to the people who need your support at this particular time?
If you’ve publicly supported the BLM movement as often as you’ve touted ‘All Lives Matter’ then there probably isn’t much of a problem, but if you haven’t, then perhaps you could consider why not?
Saying ‘All Lives Matter’ without showing support distracts from and belittles the issue and is extremely unhelpful.
Many of us (in the UK at least) have grown up being told that colour doesn't matter, and that makes it really difficult to talk about race without getting angry or upset. The 'All Lives Matter' or 'White Lives Matter' reply is, in our eyes, a symptom of White Fragility.
