Do Black Lives Matter or do All Lives Matter? That question has been the cause of many
debates and conversations across America recently. The All Lives Matter response was created
to criticize the Black Lives Matter Movement and operates under the assumption that the movement isn’t needed in America because it is a post racial society. This thesis reviews race theories, racial formation in the United States and racist ideology in the pre- and post-Civil Rights era in order to show why the Black Lives Matter Movement is needed. It looks at the influence colorblindness has on the United States Criminal Justice System and the All Lives. Matter response. Finally, this thesis explains why the Black Lives Matter Movement is important and suggest next steps that can be taken by the Black Lives Matter Movement to reach its goal of social justice for black lives. How did American society reach the point where it needs a Black Lives Matter Movement? What is the relationship between the All Lives Matter response and the concept of colorblindness*? *Colorblindness in this context is referring to the practice of not taking into account a person’s skin color when making some sort of decision. Police brutality (especially against African Americans) is not a new topic in America, but the recent shootings of young black men by cops in cities around the United States has turned it into a hot topic of late. There have been numerous protests and riots due to police officers not being indicted for killing unarmed young black men, and with these protests a new social movement was formed that started out as a twitter hashtag that is entitled #BlackLivesMatter. Though a civil rights movement is nothing new to America, this particular movement comes at a time when America sees itself as a “colorblind” or “post-racial” society. This means that the general population of people living in America believe that they are not racist and that they don’t take into consideration the color of a person’s skin. The colorblind ideology that is prevalent in the post-Civil Rights era, that America is currently in, considers everyone to be nonracial or not belonging to any race (Van Cleve & Mayes 2015). Colorblind ideology may sound like the perfect solution to inequality, but in reality it is not. This colorblind ideology has contributed to the systematic issues throughout the criminal justice system that then caused disparate racial impacts to manifest (Van Cleve & Mayes 2015). Colorblind is a new form of racism that has developed in the post-Civil Rights era and is connected to the negative response that the Black Lives Matter Movement has received. As with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s there has been backlash. For the Black Lives Matter campaign, it has come in the form of the statement that #AllLivesMatter. This leads to the question: How did America reach a point where it needs a Black Lives Matter Movement? And What is the relationship between the All Lives Matter response and the concept of colorblindness?
The Black Lives Matter Movement was started in response to these deaths and was
intended to be a celebration and humanization of black lives. It aims to be a political and
ideological intervention in a society where black lives are systematically and intentionally
targeted for demise. Its goal is to rebuild the Black liberation movement. The Black Lives Matter
Movement is trying to move the mentality of those in America away from “us versus them” and
in doing so truly free black lives from inequality. If America has truly reached a post-racial
society why is such a movement needed to assert what Americans already know? Many people
have been shifting the focus of this movement by saying that it’s not just Black lives that matter,
all lives matter and all lives are important.
Matter Movement into being anti-white instead of pro-black. By doing this and focusing on the
“Black” part of the Black Lives Matter Movement, they are not truly hearing the concerns that
are being voiced. Yes, all lives matter, but there is a reason why people are reasserting that black
lives matter. If the statement that black lives matter is not true, then America is sending the
message that black lives are not truly lives and therefore they can be disposed of, killed or lost
Furthermore, history reflects that black lives were seen as being a fraction of a human life during
slavery. In Southern states where slavery was legal, slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person when
counting population. A true post-racial society has not been reached, so why are some people in
the United States disregarding this new civil rights campaign and asserting that all lives matter?
It is being said that the statement (that Black Lives Matter) is an obvious one, but this obvious
statement hasn’t been reflected in history or current American society.