Black Lives Matter, and All Lives Matter. I'd like to think the two campaigns can stand together. Instead, we see them fighting. Many in the Black Lives Matter effort see the All Lives Matter as an attempt to derail their effort, to discredit it. And, some in the All Lives Matter effort see Black Lives Matter as an effort to put some lives ahead of others, to suggest that black lives are more important.
"Can we all get along?" Rodney King asked years ago, after he, as a black person, was brutalized in what some would term to be the original police beating. (Not that there weren't some before it, but the King beating was a precursor of what was to come.)
Black lives do matter. Blacks do yet face discrimination. We should be concerned as to whether blacks are more likely to be victims of police brutality.
And, we should be concerned about all lives. We should be concerned when we see police attacked simply for being police. Some have suggested that that is a hate crime (attacking a police officer for no more reason being a police officer), and they are right. It is. We should be concerned about that.
And, rather than dismissing the Black Lives Matter campaign, we should be looking more deeply into what is happening. Some might say blacks are not attacked by police any more than whites are. Is this true? For, if blacks are attacked more, we should want to end it, and we will never end it if we don't even look into the premise.
Actually, it doesn't matter if it is disproportional. Even if black people are not attacked any more than white people, we should be concerned if ever someone is attacked simply for being black.
Just the same as we should be concerned if an officer is ever attacked simply for being an officer.
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