No, this isn’t a post about rainforests. Although you should also be concerned about them. Every second we lose about a football field size swath of them. They are vital to our survival and must be protected.

This is a post about Black Lives Matter and what the expression means. Not to people of color. They are far more qualified than I am to speak about what BLM means to them. I am here to discuss what BLM means to white folk. Because there seems to be a lot of confusion about what the phrase means.

For starters, the inverse of the phrase doesn’t mean ONLY BLACK LIVES MATTER. That’s not what the phrase is. It doesn’t say WHITE LIVES DON’T MATTER either. White people get all white-knuckled (excuse the pun) about feeling excluded. “What about us,” they whine. It shouldn’t come as a surprise they do.

White supremacy teaches us that only white values, or white concerns, matter. It is no coincidence that when white people found out coronavirus was killing a disproportionate number of minorities, the push to open the country back up ramped up. Was anyone out there consciously thinking “hey, let’s kill some more black people by forcing them back to work”? No. Hopefully not. But once COVID-19 passed from being a white concern to more of a black concern, suddenly armed white folk were showing up to state capitols looking for their “freedom” back. This is because white supremacy only allows white issues to be the pressing concern.

Take policing. I won’t spend a ton of time on this but it’s not a coincidence that feelings towards police and how they operate are split along racial lines. It isn’t whitey’s kids being killed and brutalized, so it’s not a problem. In the suburbs, the cops are your friends and neighbors. In the city, they are an occupying force looking for trouble or they are the vicious attack dogs protecting your wealth. This racial divide is because of white supremacy and how it insidiously convinces people of one reality while masking another.

ALL LIVES MATTER.

Well, duh. I mean, probably not Nazis. Their lives don’t matter. But MOST lives matter. This should go without saying. But because white people cannot see beyond their privilege and racial narcissism, unless they are explicitly stated as the “priority”, their poor little feelings get hurt. Saying Black Lives Matter is the same as saying Save the Rainforest. It doesn’t mean FUCK ALL OTHER FORESTS. It just means that there is a particularly vulnerable area of great importance that needs attention. That’s it. The redwood and pine forests across the country are still important and obviously no one should go cutting them down willy-nilly. But the rainforests need our attention now. They are endangered. If an army of black police officers were gunning down whites we’d be having the same conversation.

This is all that Black Lives Matters means. It doesn’t mean white people aren’t important. They are. If anything is ever going to change it will be because white people have made progress with their racist history and reliance upon white supremacy for status and station. Black people, and other minorities, have been waiting centuries for white people en masse to catch up to where they are in their progress and allow them true equality and equity in our country. They are not oppressed because they choose to be. White people oppress them because it helps to maintain the structure and system so many white folks find comforting. White supremacy ensures we never see or have to confront the oppression directly.

The next time you hear someone say “Black Lives Matter” and feel a strange repulsion to it; when the hairs on your neck kind of stand up and you feel like you’re being told something you don’t want to hear; it’s ok. You are. You’re being told that everyone matters, not just white people. And that’s a scary thing to confront for people indoctrinated by white supremacy into thinking they are the sun in which all society orbits around. Take a breath. And remember the rainforests. All forests are precious but these ones are in danger.

BLACK LIVES MATTER.