Conservatives, please stop saying ‘all lives matter’

What Napear may have meant as a neutral statement was certainly not taken as one. Following his tweet, Napear’s employer first suspended him, and the Kings released a statement saying, “Grant’s recent Twitter comments do not reflect our organization’s views and values.”

Do they mean values that don’t include supporting all lives? Well, it’s not that simple.

First of all, it’s important to note that Napear should never have been placed on administrative leave (even if he has since resigned). The majority of people who say “all lives matter” don’t mean it as a racist dog whistle. A few years back, I was firmly in the “all lives matter” camp. My reasoning was, as I think it is for most people who repeat the slogan, “Why would you have to say that black lives matter when black lives are a subset of all lives?”

But that seemingly benign phrase is loaded.

Black Lives Matter was created after the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012, and it went viral after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead two years later. Activists have used the phrase to draw attention to police violence that targets black people, and it has been adopted by a network of grassroots groups across the country. Over the past several years, the hashtag has remained ubiquitous, especially in the worst of times — whenever there was a tragedy such as the recent killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.

Many conservatives protest the phrase “black lives matter” because they think it minimizes the idea that “all lives matter.” Some object to the way some Black Lives Matter activists have associated with antifa.

But affirming that “black lives matter” doesn’t diminish the value of all lives. It amplifies it.

“I’m not as educated on BLM as I thought I was,” Napear told a Sacramento Bee columnist after he was suspended. “I had no idea that when I said ‘All Lives Matter’ that it was counter to what BLM was trying to get across.”

In many sectors of society, black lives have, historically, not mattered. Saying “black lives matter” is basically a definitive way of saying “black lives matter, too,” just as much as all the other lives that society has always valued. When the phrase is used as a rallying cry against police brutality, it reminds us that although more white people are killed by police each year, black people, comprising a smaller portion of the population, are disproportionately affected. (Despite making up just 13% of the population, black people were 24% of those killed by police last year.)

When conservatives dismiss cries of “black lives matter” by repeating that “all lives matter,” they come across as callous toward the unique difficulties and injustices of black lives. We’re all struggling through something; right now, let’s talk about this particular struggle.

As much as I hate to take advice from celebrities, Gen Z’s melancholic pop queen Billie Eilish actually made a good point: If a house is burning down the street, you’re not going to stop a cadre of firefighters to remind them that your house matters just as much. The analogy echoes this viral cartoon:

Affirming that racism does still exist and that issues uniquely affecting black people must be addressed does not mean that you must support violent demonstrations. I know this is shocking in an age without nuance, but you can care about police brutality and also object to riots. (You can even care about burning churches while also objecting to dispersing protesters violently for a photo-op.)

While some on the Left may be quick to pounce on “all lives matter” as a “racist” phrase, most people who use it don’t mean it that way. They mean that they also support police or they also support small-business owners whose storefronts have been wrecked and looted over the past week. But it’s actually OK to signal your support for things one at a time, without qualification.

All lives matter, and as we now have an opportunity to turn our attention to police reform (ending qualified immunity, reforming police unions, using police pension funds to award damages to victims), it’s important to remember what many of us seem to have forgotten: black lives matter.

Madeline Fry (@madelineefry) is assistant magazine and digital editor at Philanthropy magazine. Previously, she was a commentary writer with the Washington Examiner.