My Thoughts on Black Lives Matter

01 Aug 2020 - Hadron DaVinci

Summary

I support the statement black lives matter but not the organization Black Lives Matter.
To emphasize this distinction, I’ll refer to the statement in lowercase and the organization as BLM.

Why Do I Support The Statement?

To understand why I support the statement, we have to define what the
statement means does and doesn’t mean.

What Statement Means:

The statement black lives matter is used as a reminder that black people should be treated as human beings.

What Statement Doesn’t Mean:

The statement black lives matter doesn’t mean that blue lives don’t matter.
The statement black lives matter is mutually inclusive with other groups mattering.

From my perspective, the statement black lives matter is an axiom. Said differently, asking if black lives matter is True
is similar to asking if the statement 1 + 1 = 2 is True. The answer is Yes, and Yes.

A more relevant question is not whether black lives matter or not but instead: Do we need reminding that black lives matter? Due to high-profile unjustified killings of black people, such as in the Ahmaud Arbery case, my answer to this question is Yes.

Why I Don’t Support the BLM Organization?

BLM is not tackling the right problem

1) When the group was originally created, it was focused on ending unjustified killings of black people. However, the current objective is ending white supremacy which is too broad and very difficult to track/quantify. I believe the best organizations are the ones which do such a good job in solving a problem that they put themselves out of business. And in order to do this, the problem has to be well-defined.

2) BLM only focuses on unjustified white-on-black killings. However, I think BLM should focus on all unjustified killings of black people including black-on-black ones.

BLM is not using effective strategies

1) Instead of mostly protesting, BLM should seek to change laws and policies on the local level. This would include talking to (and voting for) police chiefs, mayors, attorney generals, etc.

2) Due to BLM’s being highly decentralized, it is susceptible to message hijacking. Therefore, anyone can claim to be a member of BLM and protest/petition for just about any cause, no matter how extreme, and no matter if that cause does nothing to stop the original problem of unjustified black killings. To add, some protests have evolved into a mob and I haven’t seen adequate BLM leadership to denounce this. This is a big deal b/c it removes a great deal of credibility from BLM’s and lowers its effectiveness.