Kia ora koutou,
It has been illuminating hearing or reading comments about the words Black Lives Matter. Whether we protested or marched or were simply there in spirit, the reason for it has been in all our minds after the death of George Floyd at the hands of White policemen in America recently.
Some have said dismissively, ‘All Lives Matter,’ as if that was the point. If all lives mattered then George Floyd and others would be alive, wouldn’t they? That wasn’t a White man asphyxiated by a White man – it was a Black man asphyxiated by a White man. The point of saying Black Lives Matter is because given the history of police dealings with African Americans it usually is a White police officer hurting, maiming, or killing a Black person so we need to remind the world that Black Lives Matter. Our history here in Aotearoa isn’t so hot either.
If all lives mattered the Black American out for a jog would not have been targeted and killed by a White father and son, shot because the father thought the man looked like a housebreaker.
When we say Black Lives Matter it is not because other lives don’t, we’re saying Black Lives Matter because its glaringly obvious it needs to be said, that people need to be reminded.
So where would we be on the bus? Would we be sitting up the front watching Rosa Parks refuse to give up her seat to a White person? Refuse to move to the back of the bus? Because the bus was divided into areas– one for Whites (at the front of the bus) and one for Blacks (at the back of the bus). Would we be thinking all lives matter, at least she’s being offered a seat or would we be thinking, there’s empty seats at the back of the bus, the white passenger can sit there? Or would we be thinking Rosa was lucky to be offered a seat at all? Because, of course, all seats matter.
I hope I would not have said ‘All seats matter so it won’t hurt Rosa to move.’ I hope I would not have thought all seats matter, a seat is a seat, let Rosa go to the back of the bus. I hope, oh how I hope, I would have stood up and said, ‘This woman was here first, let the new passenger sit at the back of the bus.’ Or maybe even, if that didn’t work, ‘Take my seat, I’ll go to the back of the bus.’
I hope that’s what I’d have done…
Renée
