We thought these memes sum up quite well why 'all lives matter' feels disrespectful:
- Imagine your friend has a small business and they ask you to help promote it. Would you say ‘all businesses matter’?
If they said all they need from you is a share of a FB post, or for you to tell some friends about their business, or to buy a pair of socks from them as well as a large clothes business. Would you do it? Or would you start talking about any and all pitfalls of their business that they’ve had no control over (like late stock arrival?) and start talking about those instead?
Of course all businesses matter, but your friend needs some help in order to progress theirs, because they're not yet as well known as the bigger businesses.
- Next time you walk down the high street and see a greyhound rescue charity asking for donations, will you head over and say ‘what about the staffies’? Or ‘all dogs matter’?
Of course all dogs matter, but those greyhounds need some help!
If you donate, it doesn’t mean you suddenly hate all other breeds, it just means you’ve helped a greyhound that needed help to be rescued.
- Have you ever been in a supermarket and been asked by the RAC man at the door if you need roadside assistance?
Did you tell him ‘there are other roadside assistance companies too!’?
Probably not, because you’d look a fool.
- Have you ever watched a football match and a player is repeatedly fouled all game, before eventually going down?
When the physio/DR ran on did you shout ‘all players matter!’?
No, because that player at that particular time really needed an intervention.
Would shouting ‘all players matter’ be:
A) Moronic
B) Distracting
C) Unhelpful
D) Harmful to the player who needs help
E) All of the above
So when you say ‘all lives matter’, what do you ACTUALLY mean? What are you trying to achieve? In any of these examples are the people needing help saying, at any point, that no one else needs help?
It’s not that saying ‘All Lives Matter’ is racist. But it is harmful to the movement for equality, because it is distracting, unhelpful and quite frankly, stating the bleeding obvious.
