Black lives matter to me.
This makes some of my friends uncomfortable. Usually, for two reasons: they want to say all lives matter, and/or they want to point to the eponymous organization Black Lives Matter which has an agenda they find upsetting.
Well, nonsense.
Our hearts and minds have become so polarized we find it increasingly difficult — even impossible — to embrace opposites. Whatever we call it – spiritual tension, wrestling with God, or cognitive dissonance – we struggle to reconcile two truths that seem to contradict each other.
Worse, we can’t even embrace two obvious truths without wanting to negate or ignore one.
Look, when the Boston Marathon was bombed, we all said, “Boston Strong.” Nobody felt compelled to say, “Well, all cities are strong.” When the Las Vegas shooting happened, we all said, “Stand with Vegas.” Even when 9/11 happened, we heard many around the world say, “We are all Americans now.” Or when a friend said she has breast cancer, I didn’t counter with, “Well, lots of people have cancer.”
We really need to get over ourselves on this one. Black lives matter. Period. No need to say more, or to question, or to challenge this. I’m not saying police lives don’t matter (of course they do!) or that all lives don’t matter (good grief, really people?). It is not an either/or choice.
I’m saying black lives matter. Because they do.
About the organization with the same name, who cares? We say a lot of things that can be easily pointed back to an uncomfortable organization.
For instance, when a friend says we should put “America first,” I don’t point out that the phrase was a centerpiece of the Ku Klux Klan. Or that it was the same phrase isolationists used in their attempt to keep us from defeating fascism.
When my pastor says, “Do not lose hope,” I don’t ask if he’s quoting Jeremiah … or Mohammed (Quran 3:139).
When I hear someone use the phrase “pro-choice” about, well, all kinds of things, I don’t think they are not pro-life.
When I hear a mom offering to give “free mom hugs,” I don’t assume she’s affirming gay rights.
Look, my point isn’t to justify or condemn any particular organization. What I’m saying is that we constantly use and hear language that COULD be understood politically — but only if we insist on interpreting it that way.
What I want to hear and speak is truth. What I want to hear and speak is empathy.
But in our polarized world, that’s too much for many of us to handle. Sigh.
Black lives matter, my friends. That’s the simple truth.