Zuckerberg defends Black Lives Matter, epic responses to ‘All Lives Matter’ and casual racism

Mark Zuckerberg is scolding employees for what he calls “several recent instances” of people crossing out “black lives matter” on signature walls at the company’s headquarters and writing “all lives matter” instead.

Apparently this is not the first time this has happened, Menlo Park – the location of Facebook Headquarters – is notoriously white and lacking in any real ethnic diversity. The re-occurrence of this action has forced the Facebook CEO to make an official statement on a company announcement page, found and screen grabbed by Gizmodo:

It is tiresome that Zuckerberg even has to address this, but the fact that this is happening at a corporate level, and the comments seen all over social media and on other news outlets reporting this development – comments along the lines of “But it’s true, all lives DO matter” ,”The phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ is racist anyway, it suggests that other lives don’t” and “How would Black people feel if we went around saying ‘White lives matter’?” – suggests that racism is not about ignorance or lack of awareness, but about a wilful war to dominate, oppress and kill the Black Human for as long as possible.

‘Black Lives Matter’ Responses To ‘All Lives Matter’

Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson gave a fitting response to the ‘All Lives Matter’ rhetoric when he attended The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on the 27th June this year.

He made an analogy with a Breast Cancer rally. Imagine if you went to an event to talk about Breast Cancer and someone started shouting the odds about colon cancer, talmbout all cancers are deadly? Can you imagine how insensitive, and more importantly, stupid that would be? Does concentration for one cause negate the validity of another? Or is it in fact just easier to feign ignorance at the seriousness of the issue and obfuscate instead?

And this, this is perhaps my favourite response. Not because it is any better than any response I’ve ever heard to the ‘All Lives Matter’ white noise, but because it is a comment made by a white man, Adrian. Suggests to me that they are not completely incapable of reason, some just choose to be hateful, racist beasts:

You’re at the dinner table with a group. Everyone but you has food. You complain, “I need food.” Someone turns around and says, “We ALL need food.” True, but it does nothing to address your problem, which is that you, in particular, don’t have any food. Conveniently, the one who countered you with, “We ALL need food” already has his food. If he says “We ALL need food,” and then does nothing to address your lack of food, would you be fine with that? It’s true, but so what? It would be one thing if he followed it up with something else, like, “We ALL need food, but SlySy is the only one without any, so let’s get him some food,” or, “…so let’s all share some of ours with him.”

Everything about this fight affects us ALL. Not just those of us living outside of Africa but even our African brethren. How we are treated affects the economy, our job market, our exchange rate, our ability to travel abroad, our future.

Don’t stop fighting.