I've been asking myself a question. I've been asking it very quietly, because if I ask it out loud, I'll be mobbed for being a racist pig. Here's the question: Why is it racist to state the following straightforward moral proposition?
All lives matter.
I'm privy to the obvious argument. Allegedly up until now, it's only been us privileged white folks whose lives have mattered. Black lives didn't matter before. Only white lives. So now black lives matter.
It's symmetry. Get it?
The problem with this is obvious. Did the lives of 68,000 mine workers in West Virginia who have died from black lung disease since 1968 matter? Their lungs end up black but the victims are white. Did the lives of the 58,220 soldiers who died in the Vietnam War matter? 52,980 of them were white. That pile of white corpses resulting from a senseless, illegal war didn't seem to matter. Did the lives of millions suffering through the Great Depression, some starving to death, matter? Granted, African-Americans got hit harder. But the white folks didn't seem to matter enough to keep the predators from crashing the economy again in 2008, then putting everyone in debt up to their eyebrows.
You get the picture. Everyday Americans are endlessly subjected to indignities which degrade the quality of their lives, sometimes consigning them to the grave. There has been nothing race-specific about much of this abuse. White folks have not been exempt.
Class warfare is color blind. To the ruling class -- the .1% who have the wealth and power -- race, ethnicity, religious beliefs pretty much don't matter. As long as you have a body and a brain they can put to use in maximizing profit and adding to their already enormous wealth, you matter. When they're done with you ... well, now you don't matter. Your problems are your problems. We might be deluded into believing that as a nation we're all in this together. We're not. You and I are in it together. The rich and powerful are in it for themselves.
Same with the imperial project, America's ambitious designs to conquer and rule the world. As long as you can hold a rifle and shoot straight, color of skin, gender, sexual preferences, etc are not an issue. Yes, gender and sexual preferences have mattered as disciplinary and efficacy concerns within the ranks of the military. But the people who decide on the wars couldn't care less about the details, as long as our military does the job, and makes the world safe for plunder and profit-seeking subjugation of other countries. They most certainly don't care how many people get killed in the process.
The point is, ultimately no lives matter to the ruling class, except their own.
So back to the question: Why can't we say 'all lives matter'?
You're not going to like the answer.
It's because 'All lives matter' is unifying ... and 'Black lives matter' is divisive.
Can't have everyone on the same team. A populous army of activists united under a single banner would be an unstoppable force for change, justice, fairness, equality. Slice and dice. BLM vs Proud Boys vs Antifa vs Boogaloo Bois vs NFAC vs Karens ... keep everybody in a huge brawl!
Now let's see how this strategy works. If we say 'Palestinian lives matter', we're Jew hating anti-Semites. If we say 'Russian lives matter', we're commie-loving Putin-apologists. If we say, 'Asian lives matter', we're cheerleaders for the Wuhan Flu super-spreaders. If we say 'All lives matter', we're n*gger-hating white supremacists.
Divide and conquer. Divide and oppress. Works every time.
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