The "ALL LIVES MATTER" statement and rhetoric diminishes, stifles, silences and continues the

disenfranchisement of the stunted voices of those *asking* to be heard. How/Why? It is a form of

deflection and gaslighting. as it is a retort used in direct response to “Black Lives Matters” to passively
ignore, glaze over, cover up and/or not have to accept the core value of the statement and what is
actually being said/addressed. Think; has ALL LIVES MATTER ever been engaged during any other
marginalized groups' call to action, or, engaged as an independent call to action itself during a time of
historical, or current, social/civil plight?

Looking at panels 3, 4 and 5 of the image B posted, the crux of the BLM statement is explained here
and is further corroborated by the photo posted by CC. No one is saying, "This" person's life is more
important than "That" person's life. What is being said is, "This set of lives is not enduring the same
set of social engagements and treatments as others, and has not for an extended period of time, so
let's bring more attention to and finally address this via actual lip service." What is then being asked
is, "Recognize me as a human being as you do with those that look similar to/like you - not as an
'other', 'savage', 'beast'. 'threat' or any other moniker that makes you dehumanize, demonize or fear
me and the color of my skin and in turn see me as an expendable life, not worthy of the same
existence as yours." Rarely do you ever see or hear one marginalized group's call to action
intercepted or diminished by another marginalized group's calling out for theirs instead. At a Colon
Cancer rally/benefit, no one interjects, “PROSTATE CANCER MATTERS!” At a Breast Cancer
rally/benefit, no one interjects, “LUNG CANCER MATTERS!” because there is a basic understanding
that “you calling out attention to your plight does not take away from mine so I see you, I hear you, I
support you”. Yet, for many proponents of ALM, because they do not actively experience or actively
see the Black (or any other marginalized group's) experience, they can passively ignore or diminish
the severity of occurrences in a Black life reality - they don't have to see it because it doesn't affect
them. They naively hold a belief that “it's not really that bad” or, “I'm sure you are just reading into or
seeing the situation wrong” or, “Civil Rights happened, things are so much better than they were
before” or something of a similar ilk to counter-explain what is being explained. Just because it doesn't
affect you, it is assumed it doesn't happen or doesn't exist. But, that's not the case - you just haven't
noticed or you have and chosen to take a blind eye and walk away from the effects, repercussions and
uncomfortableness that doesn't directly apply to you. Jane Elliot is a well-known activist and educator
from her BROWN-EYED/BLUE-EYED EXPERIMENT, which she has been conducting for over
50years. In one presentation to a room full of white persons, shes presents the following: “I want
every white person in this room, who would be happy to be treated how this society in general treats
our Black citizens - if you as a white person would be happy to receive the same treatment as our
Black citizens do in this society, please stand....” Think about how you would respond and why. Then,
watch the :45second clip here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yrg7vV4a5o.

In AC's response to KM, she says "…it [BLM] short changes the others in this world. We need to be
ALL IN THIS TOGEHTER or we fall together. To love all is the way to go and not to divide." As well-
intended as that thought and statement is, ALM is actually MORE divisive and short-changing than
BLM. The fact that to this day marginalized communities are still asking for and seeking equal
recognition and legal protections is telling in how much ALL LIVES actually DON'T matter. From Black
Pride to Latino Pride, Gay Pride and more, communities worldwide are still having to proclaim their
collective (and self) worth out of basic necessity to showcase the challenged existence of their lives
as others would still rather not see them exist and not hear their voice. If someone was to say, “GAY
PRIDE MATTERS,” would you ever retort, “STRAIGHT PRIDE MATTERS”? No, because we know
STRAIGHT PRIDE MATTERS but, GAY PRIDE and their continued fight for full acceptance would be
the focused conversation at hand. Yet, there are some whom have filed petitions for STRAIGHT
PRIDE in cities across the US (the latest that received national media coverage held in Boston 2019)
as a blatant contemptuous response to diminish the presence and equalization cry for gay lives. Let it
be further known until a couple days ago - 15 June 2020 - it was still legal to discriminate/fire people
for being LGBTQ+. The Supreme Court just made that ruling. 2020 – the future! We've come so far!
ALL LIVES MATTER! Now, replace GAY PRIDE with BLACK LIVES and here we (still) are – it's the
exact same thing. Of course all lives matter. That doesn’t even need to be said. The whole intent of
saying BLM is in fact substantiating the believe that we should be ALL IN THIS TOGETHER and to
LOVE ALL. Yet, the historical record showing we have in fact NOT all been in this together [still] and
have all NOT been loved [still], specifically and especially when it comes to BLACK LIVES, is what
BLM is TRYING to bring attention to.

Looking historically at that record for just over the last 157years repeatedly illustrates how Black lives
and their ability to exist in the nation now known as The US (and the rest of the world) has not
mattered to many (and continues not to).

Preface - Since the colonial period (which FYI makes this a WORLD issue, not just a US issue as all
of those settlers were former Europeans before the founding of the US), colonies and states had
passed laws that discriminated against free Blacks. In the South, these were generally included in
"slave codes" with the goal to reduce the influence of free blacks (particularly after slave rebellions)
because of their potential influence on slaves. Restrictions included prohibiting them from voting,
bearing arms, gathering in groups for worship, and learning to read and write. The purpose of
these laws was to preserve slavery in slave societies – our first look at the systematic oppression of
Black lives. Keep this in mind as we move forward in time.

1863 - The Emancipation Proclamation, federally granting full freedom under federal law to enslaved
Africans/Blacks, enacted. But, note, it actually didn't free ALL slaves. Although Pres. Lincoln had a
moral conflict with slavery, he wasn't an abolitionist and didn't believe Blacks should have the same
rights as whites. But, he saw how emancipation would further undermine the Confederacy while
providing the Union with a new source of manpower to crush the rebellion - it hurt the South
economically by removing its labor force and helped the Union militarily by making Union soldiers out
of freed slaves. The executive order carefully limited the Proclamation to those areas in insurrection,
where civil government and his military authority were not respected – The Confederacy. This caveat
excluded slaves in Union hands and the five slave-holding states that had not seceded from the
United States: Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and the counties of Virginia soon to form the
state of West Virginia, and also the three zones under Union occupation: the state of Tennessee, lower
Louisiana, and eastern Virginia. In actuality, the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t immediately free a
single US slave, as the only places it applied were places where the federal government had no
control—the Southern states currently fighting against the Union. So it wasn't actually about freeing
slaves; it was a strategic tactic of business and war. History books kinda glazed right over that one...

1865 – Two years later, the 13th Amendment, federally abolishing slavery, is ratified, thus
encompassing ALL slaves throughout the United States including those previously excluded by the
limits of the Proclamation. BUT, the amendment included the clause that slavery or indentured
servitude could still be used as a form of punishment for crime. Keep in mind, Blacks were still not
provided due process when charged with a crime at this time, especially in the South due to their
recent status as slaves...still not seen as people but mere commodities. The Fifth Amendment's due
process clause which states “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law" applies only to FEDERAL government procedures, not STATE level, so state and local
governments still had the final say on incriminating Blacks. Also, that legal mention and use of the
word “property” originally included Blacks as slaves as property which many Confederate southerners
contested in court during their fight in their opposition to end slavery. This property clause and the
caveat of slavery as a form of punishment for crime is important to note in the next coming historical
years in the continued perception, (de)value and treatment of Black lives, including the current US
prison-pipeline system.

That same year, Black Codes (aka Black Laws) are being passed in Southern states in order to restrict
freed Blacks' freedom, and to compel them to work for low wages. As slavery had been replaced by a
free labor system, Black Codes attempted to return ex-slaves to the equivalent of their former slave
condition by restricting their movement, forcing them to enter into year-long labor contracts, continuing
prohibiting them from owning firearms, and preventing them from suing or testifying in court. Black
Codes were not only active in the South – Northern states that had prohibited slavery also enacted
Black Codes: Connecticut, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and New York enacted laws to discourage
free blacks from residing in those states. They were denied equal political rights, including the
right to vote, the right to attend public schools, and the right to equal treatment under the law.
Black Codes were essentially replacements for Slave Codes (see the above Preface) and part of a
larger pattern of whites trying to maintain political dominance and suppress newly emancipated Black
freemen – in other words, more of that early stages systematic oppression thing...

1866 - The Civil Rights Act. federally granting citizenship without regard to race, color, or previous
condition of slavery or involuntary servitude and guaranteeing the same equal benefits/rights and
access to law enjoyed by white citizens to all persons in the US, ratified. (Note: The Act was a direct
counterplay to the Black Codes being enacted in the Southern states and it was originally vetoed, not
once but twice by Pres. Andrew Johnson whom strongly opposed federally guaranteed rights for
Blacks – nope, ALL LIVES didn't MATTER....)

1868 - The 14th Amendment, formally defining citizenship rights, furthering the right to due process
and protecting the requirement of equal protection to all persons on a state-level decree beyond
federal protections, ratified. Note, 2yrs prior the Civil Rights Act granted these equal protections yet it
was not being enforced (or being enforced selectively) and thus under constant undermining so the
14th Amendment's due process clause mirrors that of the Fifth Amendment as to ensure individual
states had to follow the written law of the land (federal laws) and assure due process on a state/local
level. The amendment secured civil rights but not political rights/the right to vote for Blacks.

Wait, quick recap - Just so you understand the context of this information; civil rights for Black lives
were already secured almost 100years BEFORE the Civil Rights Era of the 1960s, yet history books
sort of glazed right past that tidbit of information and also interesting to note how much ALL LIVES
MATTERED to be constantly undermined for these next 100years and beyond (cough “the present”
cough )....

1870 - The 15th Amendment, banning voting racial discrimination, is ratified just another 2yrs after
equal protections and rights have already been federally granted. Remember, since colonial times,
slave codes already prohibited freed Blacks the right to vote so those codes are still being enacted
upon, causing the drawing of this amendment. Keep this mind for the next coming 90-or-so years in
this historical timeline.

That same year, Tennessee passes Jim Crow segregation laws mandating “Separate but Equal” public
operations and facilities between whites and blacks and which also created new requirements for
literacy tests, payment of poll taxes, and/or residency and property restrictions to register to
vote. This was soon to be followed by the rest of the Southern states, stemming from dissent caused
by the ratification of The 14th Amendment, which at this point is not being enforced federally and thus
in turn circumvented and granting states more local power to individually regulate the treatment of
Black lives. The implementation of these discriminatory practices is from where we get the term
“grandfather clause” as a number of the Southern states exempted those whose ancestors
(grandfathers) had the right to vote before the Civil War, or a particular date, from these restrictions.
The intent and effect of these rules was to prevent poor and illiterate African-American former slaves
and their descendants from voting, but without denying poor and illiterate whites the right to vote.
[SYS-TEM-A-TIC clap clap, clap clap!]

1886 - Lynching has become the de facto standard for intimidating Blacks with 2,500 lynchings
between 1886 and 1900 - those are just the ones on record and that's just accounting up thru 1900.
1896 - Plessy vs Ferguson rules that state laws requiring separation of the races IS in fact
Constitutional, justifying legal segregation in the South therefore undermining a federal Proclamation,
a Civil Rights Act AND 3 Amendments procuring the federal equality of ALL peoples within only the
past 33years. What's that word again? Oh yeah, (whisper it) systematic....

1915 - The movie Birth of a Nation, whose screenplay is an adaption of the novel turned play The
Clansman written by Thomas Dixon, Jr. (look it up) , is released and in its depiction of Blacks is the
national recatalyst for such stereotypes as lazy, drunkard, incompetent, buffoonish (all originally
lampooned by minstrel shows from the mid-1880s to the then recent turn of the century), fried chicken
eating and sexually aggressive criminals, as well as with it's romanticizing of the Confederacy and
heroism of the KKK, is recognized as serving as catalyst for the marked revival of the KKK. In 1992,
the Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and
selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. (Talk about a slap in the face by All Lives
Matter...)

1917 – The East St. Louis Race Riot occurs due to increased competition for jobs and housing. Noted
as one of the bloodiest race riots of the era, Blacks were randomly attacked, pulled off streetcars or
stopped in the streets and beaten. As the violence increased, homes were burned and as residents
fled they were shot or lynched. It took the arrival of the National Guard to end the violence.

1921 – The Tulsa Race Massacre occurs in the affluent Black district of Greenwood, Tulsa, OK. It has
been called “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history” as 35 square blocks of the
wealthiest Black community (also known as Black Wall Street) was decimated by a mob of white
rioters rampaging through the area killing men, burning and looting businesses and homes, on ground
and via personal aircraft, incited by 19yo shoeshiner, Dick Rowland being accused of assaulting Sarah
Page, a 17yo elevator operator and fueled by the neighboring White residents resentment of the
economic success and affluence of the Black community. Within just 18hours, about 10,000 Black
people were left homeless, and property damage amounted to more than $1.5 million in real estate
and $750,000 in personal property (equivalent to $32.25 million in 2019). Their property was never
recovered nor were they compensated for it. Many survivors left Tulsa, while black and white residents
who stayed in the city were silent for decades about the terror, violence, and losses of the event. The
massacre was largely omitted from local, state, and national histories. In 2020, the massacre became
part of the Oklahoma school curriculum – just THIS year!

1923 – The Rosewood Massacre occurs in the predominately Black self-sufficient town of Rosewood,
FL. The town is decimated by a mob due to an accusation by a woman, Fanny Taylor, that she had
been assaulted by a Black man. Nothing remains of the town to this day and nothing is mentioned in
text books either. Well, this sounds familiar.....

1944 – The GI BILL is introduced, providing benefits for all World War II veterans including low-cost
mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business or farm, one year of unemployment compensation,
and dedicated payments of tuition and living expenses to attend high school, college, or vocational
school. Although not specifically expressive of discrimination in it's legal wordings, the GI Bill
programs are left to be directed by state governments. whom all still have a propensity to discriminate
against Blacks (especially those Jim Crow Southern states) while banks and mortgage agencies
frequently refused loans to Black veterans and many southern universities refused admission of
Blacks for enrollment making the G.I. Bill even less effective for them.

1948 - President Truman issues an executive order outlawing segregation in the US military.
Is it not ironic that the US Military was segregated while fighting a world war against a supremacist
regime? Keep in mind from above that those servicemen of color whom returned home from war were
not greeted as war heroes like their white counterparts but instead were quickly reinserted into the
discriminatory and segregationist social practices that were still in place.
That same year Shelly vs Kramer declares the government support of restrictive practices to exclude
Blacks from buying homes in white neighborhoods illegal. Please take note – the GOVERNMENTAL
support of these restrictive practices (not personal/private sector business practices) was deemed
illegal AND the fact that the government was actually actively supporting these practices so that it was
addressed in a Supreme Court case....

1954 - Brown vs Board of Education rules deliberate (only deliberate?) public school segregation
illegal - 58yrs after Plessy vs Ferguson and 84yrs after Jim Crow laws become enacted.

1955 - 14yr old Emmett Till is beaten and murdered, his body then thrown into a river, for allegedly
speaking to a white woman in Mississippi. The two men (the husband of the alleged victim and his
half-brother) who actually killed the boy later admitted to the act in a magazine interview but couldn't
be tried twice, as they originally were acquitted. Also, just 12yrs ago in an interview in 2008, the
woman of whom the incident is surrounded, Carolyn Bryant, admitted that some of the story was
fabricated because she feared her husband – you know, cause ALL LIVES MATTER...

1957 - Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus uses the National Guard to block 9 Black students from attending
Little Rock High School. Pres. Eisenhower sends in federal troops to allow the Black students to
enter, following a court order. This happens 2yrs after the Brown vs BOE Supreme Court decision.

1958 – Clemmon King, Jr. applies to the Univ. of Mississippi and upon arrival for registration is forcibly
removed, taken to jail and then admitted to an insane asylum for trying to apply, because he is Black.

1960 – Later to become known as Ax Handle Saturday, a mob of 200 men armed with baseball bats
and ax handles attack a group of unarmed Black protesters conducting a peaceful sit-in protest
against segregation in Jacksonville, FL. The Jacksonville Police Department does not intervene until
a local Black gang attempted to protect the protesters, only arresting gang members and other Black
residents whom were trying to stop the beatings. Just a case of bad apples in the bunch, am I right?

1962 - Pres. Kennedy sends federal troops to the Univ. of Mississippi to end riots so that the school's
first Black student, James Meredith (a military veteran) can attend (4yrs after Clemmon King, Jr. is
committed to an asylum for applying). FYI – Mr. Meredith is still alive, currently 86yo...

1963 - The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL (a Civil Rights meeting center) is bombed - 4
young girls killed, 20 people injured.

1964 - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed, federally declaring racial discrimination illegal.
Cause, you know, we haven't had a number of laws, acts, amendments, etc. already passed over the
past 100years pretty much saying this already.....

In the same year, the 24th Amendment abolishes the poll tax, one of the many Jim Crow laws which
Southern states used after Reconstruction to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote (see above text
regarding the 15th Amendment, Jim Crow laws and the term “Grandfather Clause”from 100years prior)

1965 – The Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Marches are led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
During the first march (7March), later to become known as Bloody Sunday, upon crossing Edmund
Pettus Bridge, (peaceful) protesters are attacked by state troopers with weapons including clubs,
horses and tear gas. There were three marches total and the marches and resulting numerous brutal
beatings and deaths of protesters led to Pres. Johnson singing the 1965 Voting Rights Act that
prohibits racial voting discrimination, although (once again) the 14th & 15th Amendments had already
guaranteed these rights, 100years earlier.
1966 – The Black Panther Party (for Self-Defense – full name) founded in Oakland, CA. The
organization's main purpose was to promote social and economic issues while also challenging police
brutality by monitoring the behavior of the Oakland Police Department via armed citizen patrol. They
developed and implemented a number of community programs to address food, health and education
disparities, including the Free Breakfast for Children program. .

1967 - Loving vs Virginia declares laws prohibiting interracial marriage invalid.

Because before that, All Lives Mattered and Love All and not divide, right?

That same year, the FBI founded the "COINTELPRO" program, whose main goal was to “neutralize ...
black nationalist groups" and other dissident groups in order to prevent unification of Black nationalist
groups, weaken their leadership, as well as to discredit them to reduce their support and growth. The
initial targets included the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, the Revolutionary Action Movement and the Nation of Islam, as well as
leaders including the Rev. Di. Martin Luther King, Jr. Director J. Edgar Hoover described the Black
Panthers as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country” and by 1969, the Black
Panthers and their allies had become primary COINTELPRO targets, singled out in 233 of the 295
authorized "Black Nationalist" COINTELPRO actions. COINTELPRO also aimed to dismantle the
Black Panther Party by targeting their social/community programs, most prominently Free Breakfast
for Children. The success of Free Breakfast served to shed light on the government's failure to
address child poverty and hunger—pointing to the limits of the nation's “War on Poverty". So to clarify,
as the Black Panther Party taught and provided for children more effectively than the government and
sought to empower people of the Black community, the FBI denounced their efforts as a means of
indoctrination. Police and Federal Agents regularly harassed and intimidated program participants,
supporters, and Party workers and sought to scare away donors and organizations that housed the
programs like churches and community centers. Black lives can't even protect and provide for Black
lives cuz you know, Black Lives....wait, All Lives Matter....

1968 - Pres. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental
and financing of housing. Remember, Shelly vs Kramer declaring the governmental support of
practices to prohibit Blacks from buying homes in White neighborhoods happened 20years before this.
The government couldn't support these practices, but private persons and business could still engage
in them, although we already had numerous federal laws repeatedly making discrimination illegal.
(Syyyyyssssstteeemmm.....)

1972 - The Tuskegee Experiment (The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the African American
Male) which, under the guise of receiving free health care, covertly used Black males as guinea pigs in
the non-treatment of syphilis, ends after 40fucking years. Started in 1932, the men were initially told
that the study was only going to last six months, but it was extended to 40 years. After funding for
treatment was lost, the study was continued without informing the men that they would never be
treated. None of the infected men were treated with penicillin despite the fact that by 1947, the
antibiotic had become the standard treatment for syphilis and the participants remained ignorant of the
study clinicians’ true purpose, which was to observe the natural course of untreated syphilis. Cuz,
what was that, again? All Lives Matter....? In 1997, Pres. Clinton delivered an apology to 5 of the 8
remaining survivors, just 23 years ago and 25years after the experiment end. The last remaining
survivor died in 2004, just 16years ago.

1973 – Keyes vs School District No. 1, Denver Colorado addresses school desegregation in northern
public schools, finding intentionally imposed segregation unconstitutional, although we already had
Brown vs BOE declare public school segregation practices illegal 19years prior.
1981 – Michael Donald, an unarmed 19yo Black teen, is lynched by two members of the United Klans
of America (a KKK organization) on his way to the store. They randomly abducted him, beat him then
slit his throat and left his body hanging from a tree in a residential area of Mobile, AL.

1990 – Five teenagers (later to become known as The Central Park Five) convicted in trail for the rape
and beating of a white woman in Central Park, New York in 1989. Four were tried and convicted as
juveniles and one was tried and convicted as an adult. Prosecution of the five was based primarily on
confessions which they had made under police interrogations. None had counsel during this
questioning and within weeks, they each withdrew these confessions, pleaded not guilty, and refused
plea deals on the rape and assault charges. None of the suspects' DNA matched the DNA collected
from the crime scene: two semen samples that both belonged to one unidentified man. No substantive
physical evidence connected any of the five teenagers to the rape scene, but each was convicted. In
2001, Matias Reyes, a convicted murderer and serial rapist serving life in prison, confessed he had
raped the female jogger - his DNA matched that found at the scene, and he provided other
confirmatory evidence. He said he committed the rape alone. After a review, the court vacated the
convictions of the boys in 2002, and the state withdrew all charges against the men – 12years after
the initial conviction and after 6-12years of time served these men can never get back that was taken
from their lives. Because of the amount of publicity surrounding the case, the exoneration of the
convictions brought attention to the issues of false convictions, false confessions and false
imprisonment. Many people still believe they are guilty, contrary to the DNA evidence which matched
Reyes, who was already serving a life sentence for the rape and assault of four other women. They
had to be guilty of something, right...?

1998 – James Byrd, Jr., an unarmed 49yo Black man, is brutally murdered - lynched by dragging for
3miles along an asphalt road behind the pickup truck of 3 white supremacists who offered him a ride
home. An autopsy determined Byrd remained conscious thru most of the event, until his head was
severed halfway thru the dragging. They continued to drag his headless body another 1.5miles before
dumping it.

2000 – Bobby Jones University, a fundamentalist South Carolina private institution ends its ban on
interracial activities. Only TWENTY (20) years ago...

2014 – Eric Garner, an unarmed 44yo, Black male is killed by an NYPD officer via chokehold during
an attempt to arrest for.....suspicion of selling single cigarettes.

2016 – During the NFL preseason, SF 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick takes a knee during the
playing of the National Anthem to bring attention to police brutality and racial inequality in the US. The
protest message was co-opted by opposition who claimed the action was disrespectful towards the
flag and US military veterans, although it was a directive/suggestion from a US Army Green Beret
veteran that it was more respectful to take a knee to show respect to veterans than Kaepernick's
original method of sitting on the bench in protest during the playing of the anthem. Mind you,
numerous players have taken a knee during the playing of the anthem for various reasons prior to
Kaepernick and throughout the discussion surrounding the controversy, not once did anyone actually
discuss the original causation of the protest. This is a great example of the usage of
deflecting/gaslighting techniques to minimize the impact and draw attention away from the intended
message of an action, the same disenfranchising consequence as saying “ALL LIVES MATTER.”

2020 – Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25yo Black male is hunted and shot while jogging by two local
civilians. An arrest is not made until 74days and 4 prosecution offices later, due only to an social
uproar after video of the event goes viral.

2020 – George Floyd, an unarmed 46yo Black man is killed as an officer kneeled on his neck for
9minutes during an arrest for.....allegedly using a counterfeit bill.
2020 – Although legislation has once again been reintroduced and passed by the House of
Representatives, after 200 attempts since 1900, lynching is still NOT a federal crime.

Some are probably questioning, “What's with the long history lesson - we already know most/all of this
and what does this have to do with All Lives Matter?” to which I repeat my introductory statement,
“there is a marked difference between reading a post and comprehending the message beyond
preconceived notions and predetermined opinions.” Since the 16th century, Black lives have been
enslaved, whipped, chained, starved, dragged, hung, beaten, bled, seen as beasts, treated like
animals; a status held by the belief of their human valued worth as nothing more than a commodity.
Looking just at these last 157years of US history, Black Lives have been undermined and
disenfranchised at every corner to maintain the ideology of their sub-societal value and nonhuman
worth, being given less than standard wages, accommodations, conditions of living, access to
education, access to funding, access to medicine and health services and an overall shortchanged
quality of life – and what I have listed above is nowhere close to being a comprehensive look or
representation of the myriad social, political and legal actions engaged to maintain dominance over
and suppression of Black lives in the US (and abroad). If ALL LIVES MATTER, how have Black lives
continuously been disenfranchised and undermined to maintain a subservient level of societal value?
For every step that has tried to bring Black lives forward, many more steps have been taken to engage
measures which systematically make sure that doesn't happen and keep Black lives on the bottom. If
ALL LIVES MATTER, how have Black lives been continuously unnecessarily taken without remorse at
the whim of someone's accusations or their mere interactions with other people by pure hatred and
white rage? If to LOVE ALL is the way to go, what the fuck did Black lives ever do over the past
550years (yes 550 and still counting) to merit enduring the CENTURIES wrath of so much
international hate, intimidation, belittlement, dehumanization, discrimination, opposition, oppression,
division, criminalization and vilification?

How does all this apply to me within the current state of affairs? Because this shit is STILL
happening. As stated before, there is the naive belief system held by some that upon the end of the
Civil Rights Era, racism and discrimination somehow just stopped. That laws were made and
everyone was like, “Oh, laws have been passed and now it's illegal to do this stuff, so people don't do
it anymore.” Yet, looking again at these past 157years of US history, we know that to be a major
falsehood as people have and continue to find ways to circumvent all of those laws that have been
made granting these civil rights. What DID happen after the Civil Rights Movement was the overt
actions of racism and discrimination became less publicly engaged yet still maintained in closed-door
systematic practice as well as perpetuated in a “new” form of social and private practice discrimination
called implicit bias.

Racism and implicit bias are related concepts, but they do not have the same meaning. Racism is
prejudice against individuals from a specific racial group and can be either explicit or implicit. Some
things are glaringly racist – calling someone a racial slur, attacking someone for looking or sounding
different, causing mistreatment because of skin color. Most everyone can agree these things are
racist as they fit into the established definition of racism – “the belief that one’s own racial or ethnic
group is superior” – as defined in the dictionary. But, this basic classic definition can miss crucial
aspects of the true modern day meaning of racism – power dynamics, structural persecution and
prejudice. Herein lies implicit bias. An implicit bias is any unconsciously-held set of associations
about a social group resulting in the attribution of particular qualities to all individuals from that group
and are the product of learned associations and social conditioning. They often begin at a young age,
most people are unaware that they hold them and one can unbeknownst perform a racist act without
being an actual racist themselves. There's a well-known online test that shows personal implicit bias
alignments in regards to gender, sexuality and race via how one associates images with words, even
for those whom are conscious of, aware of and act against racist structures. So, what about those
people whom willingly and forcefully participated in segregation, discrimination, lynchings and other
violent acts against Black lives during those times and their descendants (the children and teens you
see in all those civil rights segregationist photographs)? They are still alive today as someone else's
grandparents or parents and with those same shared ideologies and biases of a segregationist past
still active to this day, generationally passing these biases forward . So in some people's eyes, ALL
LIVES do not MATTER, more specifically....BLACK LIVES via these deeply-rooted, conditioned implicit
biases . As such, Black lives are policed in all of our actions: Talk like this, walk like this, act like this,
dress like this, behave like this, sound like this, don't protest like this, don't protest like that, don't
sound so angry, why are you so angry, if you just comply you wouldn't have a problem, your
appearance doesn't meet our standards, your name is very ethnic, your hair is professionally
distracting. In 2020, just a few months ago, California became the first state to make discrimination
based on hairstyle illegal. 24 other states are expected to follow suit. Understand - A law...was just
passed...so that people would not be discriminated against...for wearing their hair how it grows out of
their fucking head and/or aligns with their cultural heritage. In case you didn't know, there were a
number of rules, codes and laws passed from the colonial period through to the turn of the century
limiting how Africans and Blacks could wear their hair and headwraps paving the way for a bias
preferring a Eurocentric hair aesthetic and standard. SYSTEM-FUCKING-MATIC prevalence through
the years. Further speaking about policing, due to these stereotypical tropes and held biases, Blacks
lives (and other POC) continuously have the police called on them for simple every day living actions
like: barbecuing in the park, sitting in a Starbucks restaurant, watching their child's soccer match,
babysitting (white) children, entering your own apartment, being a young girl selling water, being a
young boy whose backpack accidentally brushes up against someone who in turn accuses sexual
harassment/assault, mowing the lawn, investigating real estate, swimming in a public pool, eating
lunch on campus, sitting on a bench, waiting in your car to pickup someone, and most recently, asking
someone to comply with a dog-leashing law in a public park. In each of these situations, the caller has
felt suspicious of the mere presence of Black lives in their world, for things that white lives have the
privilege of enjoying without apprehension, took it upon themselves to police the Black lives to then
later feel personally threatened and attacked (their loss of power) by confrontation in the form of non-
compliance, questioning and push-back by the Black lives to then utilize 9-1-1 as their personal
security enforcement. Cause once again, ALL LIVES MATTER, right?

Another result of that enduring base definition of racism, is it is often thought of as something that only
bad people did a long time ago during the Civil Rights Movement (+50years ago) and as racism is
often conflated just with slavery, something that happened in the distant past. (way over 100years
ago). Bringing the above historical chronology of the devaluing of Black lives to a proximal
chronological relativity, my grandmother is from the same era as Nan and Pops. She was born in
1928, raised in the Jim Crow South (Easly, South Carolina). Understand, my grandmother was
YOUNGER THAN MY CURRENT AGE when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted, YOUNGER
THAN MY CURRENT AGE when interracial marriage was officially legalized, YOUNGER THAN MY
CURRENT AGE when the Voting Rights Act was signed into law and YOUNGER THAN MY
CURRENT AGE when Southern States actively fought against the federal laws prohibiting
segregation. My mother was also born in the Easly, South Carolina Jim Crow South in 1947. She
would turn 7 just three days after Brown vs BOE was ruled, she was just 8 when Emmett Till was killed
and she was only 17 when the Civil Rights Act of 1964, federally declaring racial discrimination illegal,
was passed. For Christmas 2018, we took a family trip (2 of my sisters, my mother and myself) to the
African-American History Museum in DC. She thoroughly enjoyed the celebration of black greatness
thru the years in the upper levels, but when we got down to the Reconstruction, Jim Crow/Segregation
and Civil Rights eras, she kept her composure very well, but I could see the weight the memories were
taking on her. The silence and repressed somberness as we walked together screamed louder to me
than being scolded by her actual voice as a child. When people think of Jim Crow, Civil Rights,
discrimination and racial disparities in the US, they think of these times a thing of a DISTANT past, but,
they are in actuality in the modern times of people's current living grandparents and parents. I lost my
great-grandmother (born in 1906) in 1992 (I was 13), I lost my grandmother last year, July 2019 and
my mother just turned 73 - not so distant history in my family lineage.
So, the "possible repercussions" for me are the exact same as for every other Black life across the
nation, and the world – at any moment I could be the next news report. UJ - While you see me as a
citizen of the world, other people don't. Their perception of me is (still) based SOLELY on the
preconceived notions that the color of my skin makes me savage – a ticking time-bomb threat of
aggression not worthy of merely existing and there is no escape, mask or facade to help shield me
from this. A Jewish friend is a human until someone finds out or is told they are a jew. A Gay friend is
a human until someone finds out or is told they are a fag (terminology poignantly used to make a
point). Even a serial killer is given the benefit of the doubt and seen as a human before they are
called a murderer and condemned for their atrocities. Whiteness can help provide them all a layer of
protective acceptance from the social hunt of bigotry until that protective layer of acceptance is
broken, revealed or discovered. No matter the depth or level of my education, the prestige of
accomplishments, nor any of my multifaceted, multi-talented worldwide credentials that compose my
resume, the first (only) thing people see is a Black life - a punk, a thug, a gang-banger, a drug dealer,
a beast, a dog, a demon, a threat, a nigger - and I have to prove my worth, the validity of my life, that I
am a “good boy”, due to no other action than just being in my own skin, to be able to continue to exist
in my own skin. It has happened numerous times while growing up in CT, Philadelphia, Los Angeles,
London, Sweden and visiting countries like Germany, Spain and Italy among many other places.
Standing at the corner alone as a 15yo Black male waiting for the crosswalk light to turn green in the
white neighborhood you attend high school and hearing a car door lock. Yeah – that's happened.
Being asked “How did you sneak in here” as a teenager in another white neighborhood. Yeah – that's
happened. Pulled over in Beverly Hills at 1am after sitting at a red light and being told, “You swerved
over the line, are you drunk or high?” even though you were at a complete stop. Yeah – that
happened. Going through a yellow light (yes it was yellow, not red, and even then wouldn't matter),
being pulled over, asked to step out of the car with your hands behind your back to be handcuffed
while they search your car out of standard procedure. Yeah – that's happened. Being with your
Swedish roommate of Persian decent in the courtyard of your apartment building and being told SAPO
(the equivalent of the CIA/FBI) is watching you. Yeah – that's happened. These few personal
anecdotes may not seem like big things to some as perception and experience is key in evaluation,
but the constant onslaught of microaggressions as power dynamics In Black lives is fucking dismaying
and imprisoning.

Because of the various/ learned associations and social conditioning biases of society which predicate
how people negatively interact with Black lives, Black lives have also been conditioned from a young
age to codify and socially present themselves to conform to a white standard of acceptance in living
within these concepts of perceived Blackness to stay alive. If you know me, you know I am a non-
conformist but, in order to get to this point I had to learn over the years that I am more than enough in
all of my Blackness. Quoting James Baldwin, "It took many years of vomiting up the filth I was taught
about myself, and halfway believed, before I could walk around this Earth like I had a right to be here."
In that process, you cannot fathom the mental gymnastics of having to PERFORM your existence
DAILY as a Black male (or female) from your youth. Speech presentation. Clothing presentation.
Vocal influx presentation. Discontent/Disagreement presentation. Confidence presentation.
Presentation of presence. Taught from an early age to avert direct eye-contact, speak in a tone that
has no inclination of rebellion, and to hold body language that softens your muscularly toned and
defined lines which can be seen as threats. Taught from an early age to mind the
walking/approaching distance between yourself and white women and if need to pass, sing, laugh or
engage in some other lighthearted display to softly signify your non-threatening approach as not to
startle or surprise them. Taught from an early age and reminded throughout adulthood to maintain a
dulcet tone and approachable demeanor no matter how enraged or disheartened you might become
as not to come off as threatening or violent and not give someone a reason to dismiss you or your
message because of their uncomfortableness, while your white contemporaries are given the capacity
to go full out emotional, without regard, and being consoled and placated in their “turmoil”. Taught
from an early age that confidence - no, not arrogance, yes CONDIFENDCE - can get you hurt or killed
as it can be taken as “you think you are better than me”. Taught from an early age to uphold a lexicon
of grandeur that resembles the mental capacity of bilingualism (in addition to learning another
language) in order to navigate between two worlds of your Blackness and white acceptance. “He/You
speak so well!” Is NOT a compliment – it is a backhanded statement rooted in the bias that a Black
person does not or cannot have the capacity to be articulate and/or be educated. Remember, access
to reading and writing was previously prohibited to Blacks “You don't sound/act Black” is a derogatory
statement as it is rooted in the bias that to be Black is of a substandard social normality and based in
stereotypical biases of what Blackness is, or is supposed to be according to whiteness. In 2006 I was
called into a casting in Los Angeles for a new show about fashion, as a host. In the casting room was
the casting director (a white woman) and the assistant (a Black male around my mid-late 20s age).
There was a “new” shoe on the table that I was supposed to talk about to the “viewing audience”. Me,
my hosting skills, my fashion sense and my fondness for footwear? This was going to be an EASY
booking. I take in the product, start my first take and about 15seconds in, she stops me and tells me,
“Don't sell the shoe, TELL me about it.” I blink to process the note and hide the confusion as that is
what I had literally just done. I take another gander at the shoe, choose a new set of words and
restart until another few seconds in, she again interrupts, repeating the same. This happens a third
time until with a sigh of slight admonishment she says, “Mike....I don't feel you are being....authentic.
Tell me about the shoe.” I blink again with straight -up confusion like a deer in headlights. The only
place I could think to look for some sort of help was the assistant behind the camera and with a
defeated look he nods sighingly to confirm what I was thinking. Holding back the ire from which I
wanted to truly convey, I began to speak in a mockery of perceived Blackness; throwing slang words
together incoherently with an accent culminating somewhere along my east coast upbringing between
Boston, CT, New York and Philadelphia. When I finished, she brightly exclaimed, “THERE we go!” to
which I politely replied, “Go Fuck Yourself”, walked out of the room while calling my agent, informing
her to never send me to a casting for that woman again. Yeah – that happened. As a working teen, I
used to iron (starch and press) my dollar bills so there could be no question about where my money
came from (i.e. the bank) or my financial/class status when paying. My stylishness stems partially
from my interest in fashion and background as a former fashion designer and design major, but is also
rooted in passed down generational conditioned behavior. My mother has never left the house in
sweatpants - it takes her an hour to get ready just to run to the supermarket. She is always on point.
Raised in the Jim Crow South, she was taught from an early age by both nature vs nurturing
environmental factors (Whiteness vs Blackness) what effect appearance has on how Blackness is
perceived and in turn engaged, so to this day she doesn't want to give anyone an excuse or reason to
think she or her appearance is less than acceptable. Wanting the best for her children as they grew
up navigating their own Black vs White worlds, she subconsciously imparted (and imprinted) this
behavior on us so that we could never be reprehensibly questioned, approached or dismissed in our
Blackness due to our appearance. Some habits are hard to break, right? Speaking of mothers and
daily mental gymnastics of Black lives, the daily mental gymnastics struggle of a Black mother that
every time her son (or daughter) walks out the door, they could possibly not make the return – Every.
Single – especially when engaging in white spaces. Time (see above timeline for historical
reference/context). As a teenager, my mother's only curfew rule for me was “just let me know you are
safe, no matter what time you get in, even if you have to wake me and no matter if you decide you are
staying over.” I thought it was the coolest shit ever and a showcase in the amount of trust she
bestowed upon my teenage self. I went to school boasting about my limitless curfew to all my
classmates (at a predominately white high school) and lit up at the burning envy in their eyes as they
contemplated their limited freedoms and the amount of plotted escapades formulated and carried out
to bend the rules. Little did I realize the actual societal offset and mental safeguard it really was for her
to know that in the presence of my absence I was somewhere safe, not lying somewhere dead and
unaccounted for. Again, these are just a few personal anecdotes representing only SOME of the
myriad generational social conditioning imparted on Black lives to safely navigate (and survive) the
generational implicit biases regarding Black lives.
If ALL LIVES truly MATTER, then this wouldn't (have to) be a topic of conversation, or, as lengthy a
response to a “simple” question. Nor would there be a need for the centuries worth of equality laws,
political laws, civil rights laws, protests, legal protections, diversity trainings, political
correctness/awareness, human rights campaigns, pride parades, or anything else that seeks to draw
the outlier/marginalized communities into the collective inclusionary whole. If ALL lives do actually
matter, let's also express that same sentiment in action towards ALL people - the homeless, the poor,
the mentally ill, foreign refugees of war, Mexican immigrants, Middle Eastern people of a specific
religious background, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ+ persons, drug users and/or any person that is
different from us facing whatever type of hardship that has affected them that we have not endured,
instead of whenever, whomever or whatever conveniently fits our narrative and comfort ideology of
which lives matter. Furthermore, to see or hear those words (ALM) uttered from someone you love
and trust is disheartening as fuck, because it implicitly says the love and trust I see is mainly
contingent, the love and trust I hear is mostly cautionary and the love and trust I feel is merely
conditional – all based upon a belief that in that person's eyes my life matters only in contextual
relation to their (white) comfortableness in their safe (white) space; that I am somehow “better” than
my collective rest when I am apart from them, while in truth, I can never NOT be one of them, as seen
in the eyes of the rest of the world.

If you made it this far in reading, thank you for your engagement. As I said, it is a LOT of information
to take in but hopefully you have learned or gained some additional understanding in seeing how
historically deeply rooted and systematically complex the underlying tones run in saying ALL LIVES
MATTER and thus how/why being presented or countered with “ALL LIVES MATTER” when declaring
or discussing “Black Lives Matter” is denigrating and nefarious in intent. Yes, all lives matter, but in
order to truly get to the point where ALL LIVES MATTER, we must face and confront the ugly truth
AND confront our own internal un/conscious biases and social conditioning to do our individual part to
actively address and SOVLE this residual issue that there is STILL an underlying belief that certain
lives are not as worthy as the rest. If you love and trust me in my Black life, see the other Black lives
that you don't know as you see me – with respect, not with fear, apprehension or trepidation, in turn
bringing actual lip-service to the phrase “All Lives Matter” and confirming to “Love All” is really the end
game. Otherwise, “All Lives Matter” becomes code for “White Lives Matter,” as it becomes inferred
when ALM people think about “all lives,” it's really about All WHITE Lives.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence (edit: and actions) of our
friends.” —Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Suggested resources for those who want to learn more - there is a lot more than what is listed here
but these are a good start. The information is out there and readily available if you want it.
FILM: THIRTEENTH (13th)
FILM: THE HELP
FILM: 12 YEARS A SLAVE
FILM: HIDDEN FIGURES
FILM: WHEN THEY SEE US
FILM: SELMA
FILM: CRASH
FILM: GLORY
FLIM: TROPIC THUNDER (specifically Robert Downey Jr.'s character)
FILM: GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER
FILM: IMITATION OF LIFE
FILM: THE BUTLER
FILM: AMERICAN SON
FILM: IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
FILM: I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
FILM: THE HATE YOU GIVE
BOOK: THE HATE YOU GIVE
BOOK: IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
BOOK: I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
BOOK: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
BOOK: NATIVE SON
BOOK: NOTES OF A NATIVE SON
BOOK; NOBODY KNOWS MY NAME
BOOK: THE FIRE NEXT TIME
ONLINE ARTICLE BOOK LIST: https://www.scarymommy.com/stop-asking-people-color-explain-
racism/?fbclid=IwAR0pg3kr_PnL_fKyKFnfdRtGQ7tZjLGD5ppqxbVvxIFfttBOYImOA_uckP8
ONLINE IMPLICIT BIAS TEST - https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
ONLINE VIDEO – JANE ELLIOT OPRAH 1992 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebPoSMULI5U
ONLINE VIDEO – JANE ELLIOT – University Students - https://youtu.be/jPZEJHJPwIw?t=216
ONLINE VIDEO – JANE ELLIOT – UK Adults - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MYHBrJIIFU
ONLINE VIDEO – TEDX OHIO STATE - BLACK PANTHERS/WHITE LIES -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPN8LHVeFYA
When watching the Jane Elliot exercises, in each video notice which persons get upset; how, why to what extent
and their ensuing personal actions, even after realizing it is just an exercise/experiment.
When watching the TEDX presentation, pay close attention to the criminal charge - the who, the
execution/process of being informed and the “basis” of the charge.