I have had an interesting and diverse response to the pieces I wrote over the last two weeks.
The first one was me appealing for more white voices to join the global Black Lives Matter chorus, arguing that their consistent voices are likely to have a greater impact with those who are not listening.
And last week I wrote that black lives need to matter to black people, before we can demand that it matters to others.
The comments have been both revealing and infuriating at the same time, because there are still far too many people out there who misunderstand what’s going on.
And they are holding back the momentum that this movement is able to gather.
I am talking about people who counter the “black lives matter” slogan, with comments like “all lives matter.”
I have been spending a lot of time and energy trying to explain to them why their statement is short-sighted, hurtful and extremely shallow.
I have had many who share my views question my patience and tell me to ignore these people, whom they believe are deliberately trying to subvert the campaign, with a juvenile counter argument.
ARGUMENT: All Lives Matter
While it is very frustrating to have to explain myself so often, I have decided that it is in fact the right thing to do.
If I can make no other contribution to this cause, then educating the ignorant and misinformed will be my job; my quiet revolution.
I believe that it is very important for people to fully understand both the broad meaning of the campaign, but also its nuances that will require deeper, critical thinking from them.
There’s a lot more power in educating and persuading them of why this cause is important to them as individuals and the world at large.
I think we should all adopt a white person to educate; someone whom we can have regular awkward and uncomfortable conversations with about race and their role in making it all better; the fact that they can start with keeping quiet, sitting through the discomfort and listening without getting defensive.
Let me start you off with something I said to someone on Facebook last week.
This campaign is us trying to educate you about our dignity.
It is a dignity that is so ingrained in your psychology as a white person, that you can’t even begin to understand its absence.
As a result, you misunderstand completely what we mean with white privilege, or black lives matter.
You think we are attacking you; or your whiteness; or that we are ignoring your contribution to our causes; or your own individual struggles; or your liberal views and compassion.
You think we are minimising your empathy; or saying that you are all racists.
This campaign isn’t about any of those things.
And that is the new ignorance that we are forced to battle and continuously justify.
It’s not even that hard to understand, which makes me think that some people are deliberately misunderstanding the argument.
Because many, many white people get it.
And others are again making it about them and their pain.
It’s for that reason that we must continue to have the conversation on all the platforms available to us.
We must continue using accessible examples to simplify the issues.
You never know which example will help someone to finally understand what they have been failing to get before.
Because we can’t lose this momentum that’s building.
I worry that the pace at which the change has been happening, has been too slow.
This generation of instant gratification is not going to be as patient as previous generations.
I fear that they will only ask for change nicely for so long.
And then they will take it by force. As one woman put it: “They are lucky that what black people are demanding is equality and not revenge!”