All lives matter.
That's the new catchphrase, right? For people who don't, for whatever reason, want to hear that black lives matter. The question, however, is do the people running around spouting the phrase "all lives matter" really believe it?
The Black Lives Matter movement started in response to a series of black men being killed by police around the country. Whether or not the shootings were justified can be argued on an individual basis, however, if you're going to argue whether or not the lives of those men mattered, then we just cannot have a meaningful discussion on the topic.
Now that we've established that, in fact, black lives do matter, we can quickly put to rest the notion there is something wrong or inherently racist with pointing out the fact that black lives do, in fact, matter. Nothing about "black lives matter" is exclusionary. It is simply a group of people crying out to the rest of the county begging them to recognize their current plight. Do those who call the Black Lives Matter movement racist think that the civil rights movement was racist? Was it racist for a group of people to demand civil rights?
The question now remains: Do the "all lives matter" people really believe that all lives matter?
What effort do the all-lives people put into bettering the lives of drug addicts that can't find their way out of the end of the needle? Have they spent some time learning about how difficult digging out of the hole heroin puts you in can be, and how impossible life can be after you're labeled a felon? Or do they just let these people rot away in prison, being warehoused away as their mental and physical states continue to regress?
Do they believe the lives of the homeless matter? Have they spent much time or money working with Anchorage's homeless population or advocating for Housing First solutions that would put these men and women into beds and put them on the path to a more productive lifestyle -- or do they simply drive by and shake their heads at people begging for scraps?
What is their opinion on the lives of serial killers like James Holmes, who killed 12 people and attempted to kill 70 others in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado? How about the lives of cop killers like Shannon Miles who shot and killed Harris County, Texas, Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth? He is reported to have shot the officer 15 times. Do the all-lives people believe his life matters? Probably not.
That's the problem with the knee-jerk retort "all lives matter:" it's dishonest. They don't believe that all lives matter. Most of them are conservative, many of them are in favor of the death penalty, harsh jail sentences for drug users, murderers and other types of criminals and are perfectly happy to see many lives end at the hands of the state or be wasted away in prisons out of the sight of most of society.
There's nothing wrong with wanting some of these people in prison. Some people belong in prison for the rest of their lives. Serial killers, cop killers, many murderers, many career criminals have lost their place in society and no longer deserve the chance to live among us. However, if you believe that, and believe that it's OK for the state to take the lives of others, allow drug users to perish at their own hands and drive by the homeless begging for scraps in a nice new car sipping on a latte, you certainly do not believe, for one second, that all lives matter.
Black lives matter. This is a fact, and it's a fact that is being equivocated and ignored and played into unimportance across America even though so many black men are being singled out just because of their race. The statistics speak for themselves, nobody is making them up. Racism is alive and well in this country. That is a fact. While most police officers are good, well-meaning folk, there still exists institutional racism in policies, procedures and those just doing it "the way we've always done it." Many officers, departments and communities need to look internally, do some soul searching and come to some conclusions about how to move forward with the black community.
As for the people who say "all lives matter," you're lying, so stop it. Try to figure out why it is that someone saying black lives matter bothers you, or don't, but stop lying -- you don't believe all lives matter.
Mike Dingman is a fifth-generation Alaskan born and raised in Anchorage. He is a former UAA student body president and has worked, studied and volunteered in Alaska politics since the late 1990s. Email, michaeldingman@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com