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Dear fellow white people, let's have an honest talk about why we say "All Lives Matter." First of all, notice that no one was saying "All Lives Matter" before people started saying "Black Lives Matter." So "All Lives Matter" is a response to "Black Lives Matter." Apparently, something about the statement "Black Lives Matter" makes us uncomfortable. Why is that?

Now some white people might say that singling out Black people's lives as mattering somehow means that white lives don't matter. Of course, that's silly. If you went to a Breast Cancer Awareness event, you wouldn't think that they were saying that other types of cancer don't matter. And you'd be shocked if someone showed up with a sign saying "Colon Cancer Matters" or chanting "All Cancer Patients Matter." So clearly, something else is prompting people to say "All Lives Matter" in response to "Black Lives Matter."

Many of the people saying "All Lives Matter" also are fond of saying "Blue Lives Matter." If you find that the statement "Black Lives Matter" bothers you, but not "Blue Lives Matter," then the operative word is "Black". That should tell us something. There's something deeply discomfiting about the word "Black." I think it's because it reminds us of our whiteness and challenges our notion that race doesn't matter.
The Problem With "Colorblindness"
If you're like me, growing up, the word "Black" was always spoken of in whispers in your family. It was like we were saying something taboo. Why was that? Because it was taboo. We might feel more comfortable saying "African-American," but not "Black." The reason is that we were raised to believe that "colorblindness" was the ideal for whites. We were taught that we shouldn't "see color." And saying the word "Black" was an acknowledgment of the fact that we did "see color."

The problem with being "colorblind" -- aside from the fact that we're not really -- is that it is really a white privilege to be able to ignore race. White people like me have the luxury of not paying attention to race -- white or black. The reason is because whiteness is treated as the default in our society. Whiteness is not a problem for white people, because it blends into the cultural background.

Black people, on the other hand, don't have the luxury of being "colorblind." They live in a culture which constantly reminds them of their Black-ness, which tells them in a million large and small ways that they are not as important as white people, that their lives actually do not matter as much as white lives. Which is why saying "Black Lives Matter" is so important.
"Black Lives [Do Not] Matter"
"All Lives Matter" is a problem because it refocuses the issue away from systemic racism and Black lives. It distracts and diminishes the message that Black lives matter or that they should matter more than they do. "All Lives Matter" is really code for "White Lives Matter," because when white people think about "all lives," we automatically think about "all white lives."

We need to say "Black Lives Matter," because we're not living it. No one is questioning whether white lives matter or whether police lives matter. But the question of whether Black lives really matter is an open question in this country. Our institutions act like Black lives do not matter. The police act like Black lives do not matter when they shoot unarmed Black people with their arms in the air and when Blacks are shot at two and a half times the rate of whites, even when whites are armed. The judicial system acts like Black lives don't matter when Blacks are given more severe sentences than whites who commit the same crimes and are turned into chattel in a for-profit prison-industrial complex.

And white people act like Black lives do not matter when we fail to raise the appropriate level of outrage at unjustified killings of Blacks or when we respond with platitudes like "All Lives Matter."

But we still say it. We say it because "All Lives Matter" lets us get back to feeling comfortable. "Black Lives Matter" makes us un comfortable. Why? Because it reminds us that race exists. It reminds us that our experience as white people is very different from the experience of Black people in this country. It reminds us that racism is alive and well in the United States of America.

Now, I just said the "R" word, so you're probably feeling defensive at this point. You're instinctively thinking to yourself that you are not a racist. You may be thinking that you have Black friends or that you don't use the N-word or that you would never consciously discriminate against a Black person. But most racism today is more subtle than that. Sure, there is a lot of overt racism that still goes on. The KKK is still active and some white people do still say the N-word. But overt racism is really culturally unacceptable any more among whites today. The racism that we need to face today is much more insidious than white hoods and racial slurs. It is the racism of well-meaning people who are not consciously or intentionally racist.

The racism that we need to face is the racism of average white middle-class Americans who would never think of saying the N-word and would vociferously condemn the KKK, but nevertheless unwittingly participate in institutionalized racism. We most often participate in racism by omission, rather than commission. We participate in racism when we fail to see it where it exists. We participate in racism when we continue to act like race is a problem that only Black people have. We participate in racism when we seek comfortable responses like "All Lives Matter."
What We Can Do: Embrace the Discomfort
We white people need to embrace our discomfort. Here are some things we can do:
1. Recognize that we are not "colorblind."
We can start by recognizing that we all have an "implicit bias" toward Blacks. Think you don't have it? Consider how we mentally congratulate ourselves when we treat the random Black person the same way we treat white people. Here's a tip, if you give yourself brownie points for treating Black people like you do white people, you're not really treating Black people like white people.

Still don't think you have unconscious bias, go to the Harvard implicit bias testing website and take the tests on race and skin-tone. Even white anti-racism activists like me have these biases. And they come out in all kinds of subtle ways, as well as not so subtle ways.
2. Work against unconscious bias by spending time with Black people in Black spaces.
Next, go out of your way to spend time with Black people in Black community settings. Many of us live segregated lives in which we have little to no interaction with Black people. Let's face it, Black people make us white people uncomfortable. It's because we've been socialized by a racist system to fear Black people.

Even if you feel comfortable around individual Black people, you most likely do not feel comfortable in a room full of Black people. You might have Black friends, but you probably socialize with them in white spaces. Have you ever been to a Black space and felt uncomfortable? Maybe you felt like no one wanted you there. Welcome to the everyday experience of Black people in white culture.

And when you go to a Black space, go to listen rather than lead. Learn to follow. Leading is a white privilege. Let go of it for a while and learn from those whose experience you will never have. Listen to Black people, and if what they are saying or how they are saying it makes you uncomfortable, so much the better.
3. Talk to white people about institutional racism and say "Black Lives Matter."
It's no good sitting around feeling guilty about white privilege. We need to do something about it. One thing we can do is to use our white privilege to dismantle it.

One white privilege we have is that other white people listen to us. We can go into white spaces and talk to white people about implicit bias and institutional racism. We can unapologetically proclaim that "Black Lives Matter."

After the Orlando shooting, I went to an interfaith vigil in my small conservative town. Almost no one among the speakers said the words "queer," "gay," or "lesbian." This was probably unconscious, but it revealed a lingering, but deepseated discomfort among heterosexuals with gayness and queerness, a discomfort that the popular use of the acronym "LGBT" obscures. Similarly, we whites are uncomfortable with Black-ness. We don't even like like to say the word. It feels wrong in our mouths. We hide it by using code words like "inner city" or "urban," terms which allow us to hide from our unconscious racism. We need to say "Black Lives Matter" because we need to overcome our discomfort with Blacks and face up to our unconscious bias.
Join the Second Civil Rights Movement
Dear fellow white people, we are in the middle of a second Civil Rights Movement. Most of us white people idealize Martin Luther King, Jr. and we like to think that we would have been on his side of things during the Civil Rights era. But the fact is that the majority of the American public did not support the Civil Rights movement while it was happening and only came to see King as a hero after he was killed.

The Civil Rights movement was unpopular among most whites when it was happening. It was unpopular because it made white people deeply uncomfortable. Today, the Black Lives Matter movement makes us uncomfortable, too. In forty years we will look back on this second Civil Rights movement and have to ask ourselves whether we were on the right side of history. If we want to be on the right side of history this time, we have to make ourselves uncomfortable. There is no comfortable way to change. And the change can start with saying this simple but powerful phrase: Black Lives Matter.

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The Real Reason White People Say 'All Lives Matter'

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Dear fellow white people, let's have an honest talk about why we say "All Lives Matter." First of all, notice that no one was saying "All Lives Matter" before people started saying "Black Lives Matter." So "All Lives Matter" is a response to "Black Lives Matter."

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You Paid For It: #Ferguson Protests and Riots Cost Taxpayers $5.7 Million... So Far
The Mike Brown Ferguson protesters caused millions of dollars of damage to local businesses.

The Ferguson QuikTrip was just one business hit by vandals. The QT was looted and torched during the riots in Ferguson.

The Missouri Department of Public Safety is reporting that the riots and violent protests cost taxpayers $5.7 million, so far.
KMOV reported:

The massive police response to Ferguson in the wake of the shooting death of Michael Brown on Aug. 9 will take nearly $1.5M from the Missouri state budget.

According to the Missouri Department of Public Safety, the Missouri State Highway Patrol costs total $1.1M while activating the National Guard will cost the state roughly $384,000.

This estimate is solely for the initial response: from the time protests erupted right after Brown died to the last few weekdays of August.

St. Louis County officials estimated the county's initial cost will be $4.2M. That's a combination of money going to police overtime, fixing damaged cop cars and food and supplies for first responders.

It is unclear what will have to be cut to make up for the impact on the county's budget.

The violence is also hurting businesses in Ferguson. One business owner called the protesters "terrorists" and said his business is down 40% since the protests started. Several of the local businesses have been looted and vandalized.

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You Paid For It: #Ferguson Protests and Riots Cost Taxpayers $5.7 Million... So Far

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The Mike Brown Ferguson protesters caused millions of dollars of damage to local businesses. The Ferguson QuikTrip was just one business hit by vandals. The QT was looted and torched during the riots in Ferguson. The Missouri Department of Public Safety is reporting that the riots and violent protests cost taxpayers $5.7 million, so far.

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O'Malley: "All Lives Matter" - "All Lives Matter" Racist? - The Kelley File

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Add some pictures, videos, and bullet points

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"Black Lives Matter" creates violence

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The "Black Lives Matter" Slogan Ignores Self-Destructive Behavior, by Derryck Green

"Black Lives Matter" is a great slogan. As a black man, I agree that black lives matter just as much as the lives of any of our racial counterparts.

But chanting, marching and hashtag activism isn't going to work unless we also are willing to see the big-picture problems affecting black America.

Here's a hint: making black lives matter has little to do with institutional racism, white privilege and white cops.

One website organizing people pushing "black lives matter" calls it "a slogan under which black people can unite to end state sanctioned violence both in Ferguson, but also across the United States of America... to end the insidious and widespread assault on black life." It states "Black people make up a mere 13 percent of the U.S. population [but] make up more than a third of those killed in officer-involved shootings across the country."

Perhaps. But the virtuous goal of promoting the perceived value of black lives in the manner now demanded by radical community activists is tragically misguided.

Activism advocating that black lives matter could have much more moral authority, and could be taken much more seriously, if it focused on actions devaluing black lives. These have very little to do with white cops and everything to do with self-destructive black behavior.

There is a disparity regarding violent death in the black community. We are killing our own at an alarming rate. According to a U.S. Department of Justice analysis, most murders are intraracial and "93 percent of black victims were killed by blacks" between 1980 and 2008. Yet Attorney General Holder, President Obama and Reverend Sharpton haven't wanted a national conversation about this shocking figure.

In a black-white comparison, black homicide victimization rates were around six times higher than for whites. Furthermore:

Blacks were 47.4 percent of all homicide victims and 52.5 percent of offenders.

Blacks accounted for 62.1 percent of all drug-related homicide victims compared to 36.9 percent for whites. Over 65.6 percent - almost two-thirds - of all drug-related homicide offenders were black as compared to 33.2 percent being white.

Blacks were 44.1 percent of felony murder victims and almost 59.9 percent of the offenders.

It's not like things improved under Obama's leadership. According to FBI statistics for 2012, 2,412 of 2,648 cases of black homicide had a black perpetrator.

This, to me, qualifies as an "insidious and widespread assault on black life." Yet those claiming black lives matter fixate on Michael Brown and Eric Garner while virtually ignoring the thousands of black-on-black murder victims who remain largely nameless and faceless except to their loved ones.

The internecine war doesn't begin there. It actually begins in the womb. As deadly as black-on-black crime can be, the most dangerous place for a black child is still in the womb.

While blacks make up only around 13 percent of the American population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported black abortions accounted for nearly 35.7 percent of all abortions performed in 2010. In Mississippi, blacks accounted for 71.7 percent of all abortions, despite blacks comprising only around 37 percent of the population.

Similarly, a report from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found more black babies were killed by abortion (31,328) in New York City than were born (24,758) in 2012 - totaling 42.4 percent of all abortions performed there.

Black lives matter? Not only is it questionable if black lives really do matter to blacks themselves, but one could also sincerely question if deep self-hate is responsible for motivating blacks to kill themselves off with the recklessness that seems to permeate our actions.

Combining the black victims of abortion and black-on-black homicides, we are facing an assault on black lives that has nothing to do with racist, white cops.

If we don't take our own lives seriously, why should we expect or demand that anyone else do so?

I believe black lives matter. It's more than an Internet hashtag to me. But black lives should matter to black folk at least as much as they matter to others. Black lives have to matter just as much when blacks take them.

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Derryck Green, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network, received an M.A. in Theological Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and is currently pursuing his doctorate in ministry at Azusa Pacific University. Comments may be sent to [email protected] .

Published by the National Center for Public Policy Research. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21, other Project 21 members, or the National Center for Public Policy Research, its board or staff.

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The "Black Lives Matter" Slogan Ignores Self-Destructive Behavior, by Derryck Green - The National Center

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"Black Lives Matter" is a great slogan. As a black man, I agree that black lives matter just as much as the lives of any of our racial counterparts. But chanting, marching and hashtag activism isn't going to work unless we also are willing to...

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WHETHER ON THE SIDE OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS OR THE POLICE, THERE IS AN URGENT NEED TO SHIFT THE FOCUS FROM BLAME GAME TO INTROSPECTION--BEFORE MORE NEEDLESS LOSS OF BLACK OR BLUE LIVES.

She: "Please stop by at the store and pick us up some apples and oranges."

He: "Hmm, why?? Do you have a problem with bananas and grapes? Aren't all fruits good for you? Why are you favoring only apples and oranges?"

Pardon the pun, but that's a darn fruity response, wouldn't you say?

It's no different when your knee jerk response to "Black Lives Matter" (BLM) is "All Lives Matter" (ALM). And, unlike buying fruits, throwing out an ALM in response to BLM is more than just nonsensical--it's downright pejorative. It's like flipping the middle finger at the problem--an alarmingly disproportionate number of Black men being killed in police encounters, often in questionable circumstances: Michael Brown, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Tamir Rice, and now, back-to-back killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille. And for each such high profile case, there are hundreds of others that remain under the radar.

Some of us--Asians, Hispanics, Whites or other--become part of the problem when we fail to recognize these feelings of anguish, and in our callous cluelessness shove an "All Lives Matter" in the face of "Black Lives Matter." The attitude that comes with ALM (versus the empathy that BLM evokes) prevents non-Blacks from understanding the pain, helplessness, fear, and anger that Blacks are feeling. It's an epidemic!

Under the current circumstances, BLM is not only a valid movement, but a direly needed one.
Corruption of the Black Lives Matter movement
But as with every activist movement that involves the masses, there is the possibility of corruption of original values, objectives, and methods. In the case of BLM, its fringe has engaged in inflammatory rhetoric and hyperbole--making the entire police fraternity its enemy. That's a recipe for escalating--not solving--the problem!

The overall Blacks-police dynamic can be reversed only if BLM shifts some of its energy from laying the entire blame on cops in general, to also introspecting to see the role and responsibility they have to improve the situation. (The reverse is also equally needed: introspection and correction of police procedures and culture).
Introspection on the side of Black Lives Matter
This brings us to a critical element at play in the dynamics between law enforcement and Blacks that is largely ignored in BLM activism: the conduct of civilians in a police encounter. In far too many high profile incidents of Black men being killed by police, there has been at least one or more of the following on the part of the victim: disobedience, defiance, arguing, resisting arrest, aggression, absconding, brandishing a weapon, etc. Let me be very clear on two points (a) I realize such is not the case in all encounters where the victim ended up dead. (b) Such bad behavior by itself cannot be reason enough for the police to use lethal force, in most cases.

And yet I am surprised that time and again videos are circulated on social media as evidence of police brutality--with not a single word about the fact that the encounter would not have escalated if the civilian would have simply avoided the above mentioned set of behaviors. I am not sure if it's an ingrained reaction to the history of slavery and the abuses suffered at the hands of the KKK during the segregation eras, but there seems to be widespread defiance and distrust of the police among African Americans. It's sad to think that many of the dead victims in these cases would have been alive if they had simply complied with an officer of the law.

Yes, it's quite possible that you may be unfairly pulled over, or that the officer abuses his authority. But what civilians forget is that a police encounter is not a court of law. This is not the time and place to argue your case. The one and only thing to do when pulled over by the police is to obey their orders. That's the only way law enforcement can be effective. Will there be officers who will abuse this privilege? Of course. But if you have the misfortune of facing one of them, your chances of not being killed are much better if you are completely compliant.

The civilian has far more control and responsibility in a police encounter than what BLM activism suggests. If the movement is serious about preventing such police abuse, it needs to put at least some emphasis on encouraging Black youngsters to cooperate with, instead of defying law enforcement.
Introspection on the side of the police
On the side of the police, it's disturbing to see, in some of these high profile encounters, trigger-happy officers apparently on a murderous rampage--as opposed to trained professionals who should know how to defuse a hostile fellow with a single strategic shot or two. Yes, yes, I understand the adrenaline rush, and how fear impairs judgement; but I am sorry if I hold professionally trained police officers to higher standards than civilians. Time and again we have seen officers gunning down a civilian who was clear no threat to anyone.

While obedience to the police is the best advice for civilians, a civilian's insubordination alone should not be reason enough for a police officer to escalate an encounter to having to shoot him. Only the threat of bodily harm to the officer or others justifies pulling out Tasers or guns. Most everything else, such as insubordination, could perhaps be better addressed through summons, fines, and even jail time--after the fact, when the heightened tension of a roadside encounter has faded. But there seems to be a police culture in some circles that thinks otherwise. I'm no expert, but what I see is Tasers and guns coming out way too soon and often in disproportion to the offense at hand.

From better background checks to better training, there's much that police departments could do to improve the situation. Meditation, for example, has been found very effective by police departments in Canada and elsewhere in the world. Advanced practitioners claim that sustained practice brings a slow-motion-like trance in high adrenaline situations, giving one a better access to the gap between stimulus and response--the crucial factor for so many policing situations.

Regardless of the specific solutions, the polarization, and consequently the collateral damage to Black lives and Blue lives, will only get worse--unless both sides shift from blame-game to introspection.

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Here's What's Missing From 'Black Lives Matter'

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WHETHER ON THE SIDE OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS OR THE POLICE, THERE IS AN URGENT NEED TO SHIFT THE FOCUS FROM BLAME GAME TO INTROSPECTION--BEFORE MORE NEEDLESS LOSS OF BLACK OR BLUE LIVES. She: "Please stop by at the store and pick us up some apples and oranges." He: "Hmm, why??

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Is the Black Lives Matter Movement Good for America? - 2016 Presidential Election - ProCon.org

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Is the Black Lives Matter Movement Good for America? Read 2016 presidential candidate positions (Clinton, Trump, Johnson, Stein, Sanders, Cruz, Rubio, Bush, etc.) in the issue debate.

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Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images

The sound bite heard round the world: "Why hasn't Black Lives Matter been classified as a hate group?" referring, of course, to the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

Simplistic answer? Because in Obama's America, people are terrified to be classified as a racist if they so much as step out of line with the Social Justice Mafia. Jobs will be lost. Accusations will be thrown. Threats will be made. These are the times we're living in.

Just 6 short years ago, sending your child to school with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was considered parenting, now it's white privilege racism.

What may have started out as a harmless protest group, has since morphed into an anarchist group the likes of which would make the G8 protesters hang their Guy Fawkes masks in shame.

We now see weekly occurrences of the Black Lives Matter mob laying siege to towns across America. One left leaning city went so far as to give them space to destroy. Anti-cop rhetoric is chanted. People are assaulted. Buildings are burnt down. Molotov cocktails are thrown.

And yet, their enablers within the media and on the left continue to pretend it never happened.

They chant about dead cops and " Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon!" Tweet " kill all white people," and call for the lynching of whites and police. They wear t-shirts proclaiming that Assata Taught Me and hold placards of Mumia Abu-Jamal. But, according to one of their organizers, " It's just a joke, " Or something.

Cops are continuing to be assaulted or murdered almost on a daily basis now. Police officer Don Allen of Abilene, Texas was murdered in his home Monday night. In Chicago on Tuesday, Officer Joe Gliniewicz was shot and killed after radioing in that he was pursuing three suspects. Also on Tuesday, in Cleveland, a gunman fired seven to nine shots at an approaching police car. In Madison, Wisconsin, Wednesday, an officer was surrounded by a crowd and assaulted while he attempted to place a woman under arrest. "We need to start killing these officers," were one of the comments made.

Thursday, a female officer was assaulted and thrown over a guard rail when attempting to assist a disabled vehicle. On Friday, Officer Jeremy Robertson was shot while responding to a burglary call. On Sunday, two Las Vegas police officers were ambushed while sitting in their patrol car at a traffic light.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, and Democrats across the country were quick to classify the Tea Party as a hate group, yet no lives were taken by their actions or rhetoric. No people were assaulted. No buildings were burned to the ground. And, although SPLC has labeled groups such as New Black Panthers and Nation of Islam hate groups, the same cannot be said for Black Lives Matter. As Megyn Kelly pointed out recently, the hypocrisy of the left is completely astounding.

Law Enforcement Officers aren't the only ones being verbally, and sometimes physically, attacked by Black Lives Matter protesters. Why is that it when a person of color expresses skepticism regarding Black Lives Matter, they're called an Uncle Tom, or any number of adjectives I refuse to post because I find them completely offensive. Sometimes their lives are even threatened.

Every. Single. Life. Matters. Whether you're black, white, brown, orange, green, Catholic, Baptist, Maoist, Moonist, Pastafarian, gay, straight, trans or pansexual. Your life matters. To proclaim that one races life matters more than another is inherently racist by definition.

Black Lives Matter's actions and rhetoric prove them to be a hate group, and they should be classified as such.

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Black Lives Matter Has Morphed Into A Hate Group. It's Time To Treat It As Such.

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Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images The sound bite heard round the world: "Why hasn't Black Lives Matter been classified as a hate group?" referring, of course, to the "Black Lives Matter" movement. Simplistic answer? Because in Obama's America, people are terrified to be classified as a racist if they so much as step out of line with the Social Justice Mafia.

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As a Unitarian Universalist minister, it is sometimes my role to answer correspondence that comes to our congregation from members of the community. Last night, I received this brief note in my inbox:

Good Evening:
I am very upset at the signage that is outside of your church stating that "Black Lives Matter." Since when has God chosen to see us by the color of our skin. The sign should be taken down and replaced with ALL LIVES MATTER. How will this nation of ours ever join together if we are constantly looking at everyone by their race. Unless you were actually there in Ferguson or in New York or Cleveland, you do not have all the facts.
A Bucks County Resident

It's a sentiment I'd heard before, and I gave a great deal of thought before sending the following response:

Dear [name],
Thank you for writing with your concern. Of course all lives matter. Central to Unitarian Universalism is the affirmation of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Sadly, our society has a long history of treating some people as less valuable than others. Study after study has confirmed that in equivalent situations, African Americans and Latinos are treated with deadly force far more often than White people, and authorities held less accountable. Unfortunately, racial bias continues to exist even when it is no longer conscious-this too is confirmed by multiple studies. A lack of accountability in the use of force combined with unconscious bias is too often a deadly combination - and one that could place police officers, as well as the public, in great danger.

To say that Black lives matter is not to say that other lives do not; indeed, it is quite the reverse-it is to recognize that all lives do matter, and to acknowledge that African Americans are often targeted unfairly (witness the number of African Americans accosted daily for no reason other than walking through a White neighborhood-including some, like young Trayvon Martin, who lost their lives) and that our society is not yet so advanced as to have become truly color blind. This means that many people of goodwill face the hard task of recognizing that these societal ills continue to exist, and that White privilege continues to exist, even though we wish it didn't and would not have asked for it. I certainly agree that no loving God would judge anyone by skin color.

As a White man, I have never been followed by security in a department store, or been stopped by police for driving through a neighborhood in which I didn't live. My African American friends have, almost to a person, had these experiences. Some have been through incidents that were far worse. I owe it to the ideal that we share, the ideal that all lives matter, to take their experiences seriously and listen to what they are saying. To deny the truth of these experiences because they make me uncomfortable would be to place my comfort above the safety of others, and I cannot do that.

I very much appreciate you writing to me, and am glad that we share the goal of coming to a day when people will not be judged, consciously or unconsciously, on the basis of their race. I believe that day is possible, too, but that it will take a great deal of work to get there. That work begins by listening to one another, and listening especially to the voices of those who have the least power in society. If nothing else is clear from the past few weeks, it is painfully evident that a great many people do not believe that they are treated fairly. Healing begins by listening to those voices and stories.

Thank you again for writing me.

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On Being Asked to Change "Black Lives Matter" to "All Lives Matter"

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As a Unitarian Universalist minister, it is sometimes my role to answer correspondence that comes to our congregation from members of the community. Last night, I received this brief note in my inbox: Good Evening: I am very upset at the signage that is outside of your church stating that "Black Lives Matter."

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Point 1... useful

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AP Photo/Cliff Owen

The Alton Sterling and Philando Castile shootings have caused an uproar among leftists because they fuel their narrative that racist white police officers are hunting down innocent black men. But the statistics - brought to light by the superb work of Heather Mac Donald - tell a different story.

Here are five key statistics you need to know about cops killing blacks.

1. Cops killed nearly twice as many whites as blacks in 2015. According to data compiled by The Washington Post, 50 percent of the victims of fatal police shootings were white, while 26 percent were black. The majority of these victims had a gun or "were armed or otherwise threatening the officer with potentially lethal force," according to Mac Donald in a speech at Hillsdale College.

Some may argue that these statistics are evidence of racist treatment toward blacks, since whites consist of 62 percent of the population and blacks make up 13 percent of the population. But as Mac Donald writes in The Wall Street Journal, 2009 statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics reveal that blacks were charged with 62 percent of robberies, 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults in the 75 biggest counties in the country, despite only comprising roughly 15 percent of the population in these counties.

"Such a concentration of criminal violence in minority communities means that officers will be disproportionately confronting armed and often resisting suspects in those communities, raising officers' own risk of using lethal force," writes MacDonald.

MacDonald also pointed out in her Hillsdale speech that blacks "commit 75 percent of all shootings, 70 percent of all robberies, and 66 percent of all violent crime" in New York City, even though they consist of 23 percent of the city's population.

"The black violent crime rate would actually predict that more than 26 percent of police victims would be black," MacDonald said. "Officer use of force will occur where the police interact most often with violent criminals, armed suspects, and those resisting arrest, and that is in black neighborhoods."

2. More whites and Hispanics die from police homicides than blacks. According to Mac Donald, 12 percent of white and Hispanic homicide deaths were due to police officers, while only four percent of black homicide deaths were the result of police officers.

"If we're going to have a 'Lives Matter' anti-police movement, it would be more appropriately named "White and Hispanic Lives Matter,'" said Mac Donald in her Hillsdale speech.

3. The Post's data does show that unarmed black men are more likely to die by the gun of a cop than an unarmed white man...but this does not tell the whole story. In August 2015, the ratio was seven-to-one of unarmed black men dying from police gunshots compared to unarmed white men; the ratio was six-to-one by the end of 2015. But Mac Donald points out in The Marshall Project that looking at the details of the actual incidents that occurred paints a different picture:

The "unarmed" label is literally accurate, but it frequently fails to convey highly-charged policing situations. In a number of cases, if the victim ended up being unarmed, it was certainly not for lack of trying. At least five black victims had reportedly tried to grab the officer's gun, or had been beating the cop with his own equipment. Some were shot from an accidental discharge triggered by their own assault on the officer. And two individuals included in the Post's "unarmed black victims" category were struck by stray bullets aimed at someone else in justified cop shootings. If the victims were not the intended targets, then racism could have played no role in their deaths.

In one of those unintended cases, an undercover cop from the New York Police Department was conducting a gun sting in Mount Vernon, just north of New York City. One of the gun traffickers jumped into the cop's car, stuck a pistol to his head, grabbed $2,400 and fled. The officer gave chase and opened fire after the thief again pointed his gun at him. Two of the officer's bullets accidentally hit a 61-year-old bystander, killing him. That older man happened to be black, but his race had nothing to do with his tragic death. In the other collateral damage case, Virginia Beach, Virginia, officers approached a car parked at a convenience store that had a homicide suspect in the passenger seat. The suspect opened fire, sending a bullet through an officer's shirt. The cops returned fire, killing their assailant as well as a woman in the driver's seat. That woman entered the Post's database without qualification as an "unarmed black victim" of police fire.

Mac Donald examines a number of other instances, including unarmed black men in San Diego, CA and Prince George's County, MD attempting to reach for a gun in a police officer's holster. In the San Diego case, the unarmed black man actually "jumped the officer" and assaulted him, and the cop shot the man since he was "fearing for his life." MacDonald also notes that there was an instance in 2015 where "three officers were killed with their own guns, which the suspects had wrestled from them."

4. Black and Hispanic police officers are more likely to fire a gun at blacks than white officers. This is according to a Department of Justice report in 2015 about the Philadelphia Police Department, and is further confirmed that by a study conducted University of Pennsylvania criminologist Greg Ridgeway in 2015 that determined black cops were 3.3 times more likely to fire a gun than other cops at a crime scene.

5. Blacks are more likely to kill cops than be killed by cops. This is according to FBI data, which also found that 40 percent of cop killers are black. According to Mac Donald, the police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black than a cop killing an unarmed black person.

Despite the facts, the anti-police rhetoric of Black Lives Matter and their leftist sympathizers have resulted in what Mac Donald calls the "Ferguson Effect," as murders have spiked by 17 percent among the 50 biggest cities in the U.S. as a result of cops being more reluctant to police neighborhoods out of fear of being labeled as racists. Additionally, there have been over twice as many cops victimized by fatal shootings in the first three months of 2016.

Anti-police rhetoric has deadly consequences.
This article has been modified to correct Greg Ridgeway's name.

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5 Statistics You Need To Know About Cops Killing Blacks

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The Alton Sterling and Philando Castile shootings have caused an uproar among leftists because they fuel their narrative that racist white police officers are hunting down innocent black men. But the statistics - brought to light by the superb work of Heather Mac Donald - tell a different story.

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What is claimed here sounds idealistic, but is far from what ALM actually does

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Tulsa. Charlotte. Terence Crutcher. Keith Lamont Scott. These are national tragedies. It should not be a blow to anyone's pride to admit that this is shameful for every single American still lucky enough to draw breath. It should hurt our hearts as humans and as Americans. I'm embarrassed for us. Truly, utterly embarrassed.

I know so many people who espouse the rhetoric of the #AllLivesMatter movement. Many of these people I know to be genuinely good-hearted men and women, and I've been racking my brain trying to figure out a way to communicate to them the scope of this new Civil Rights crisis in American history -- how we can actually come together to bring about the reality in which all lives really do matter. How do I pass along the truth to my own people the same way I had to learn it myself?

The core disconnect seems to lie in the idea that these Americans believe that those who align themselves with the #BlackLivesMatter movement disagree with the ideals of #AllLivesMatter, or that they are in some way demanding "special treatment." Neither is true. Those behind #BlackLivesMatter want the same basic goal: to see a country where all lives are dealt with in equal measure, given the same benefits, held to the same laws. The difference is that those who stand with #BlackLivesMatter see a country where people of color are relegated to second-class citizen, conditioned from birth to understand that in fact all lives do not matter quite the same. To understand that even when they follow every conceivable law to a T, something as inescapable as their skin color puts their existence in jeopardy.

To those who stand with #AllLivesMatter, I ask you, without malice, to imagine if a family member of yours lost their lives in the way that the men in Tulsa and Charlotte lost theirs. Would you feel like your country honored your equal standing, your unalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?

I urge you to look at what has happened this past week and internalize that two beautiful, loving men were killed because of misconceptions about their race. I urge you to do whatever you can to help realize a nation in which all lives do matter. All it takes is voicing your discontent in whatever way is true to you. Take to social media, write your congressperson. None of us should be okay with this. If we truly believe all lives matter, it is our civic responsibility to make sure that our government understands that we will not stand for this. Because if we do not, we're failing every truth we claim to be self-evident.

Please understand: I do not intend this to condemn the police, nor am I asking you to do so. I personally cannot fathom working such a high-stakes job, and ultimately these are men and women caught in a political machine stretching far above them. If atrocities like this are occurring all over the nation, it's safe to assume it's a larger issue than a few bad apples -- it has to do with corporatized political system far beyond any of our paygrades. We can't change that right this minute, but we can come together to plant the seeds of change. Instead of drawing sides and splitting hairs, why don't we work toward building a world where that doesn't have to be the case? I openly admit it's idealistic to the point of naiveté, but we ought to at least try, right?

White people, we have to do something about this. And by "something," I mean anything. We are the majority, both literally and in terms of how much attention is paid to our voice in this country. Let's raise our voices, every one, and make it clear that we will not accept this. We must condemn this kind of violence at all levels. Let your government, your families, and your friends know that you do not and will not stand for it.

We can work out the particulars later. In the meantime, let's do our part to keep our citizens alive. The poet James Weldon Johnson wrote, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" 117 years ago. Can we please do that, together, and finally realize this dream we all share in our hearts? Our country asserts ideals unlike any in history -- can we finally live up to them?
White silence is violence.
Haven't we had enough hurt?

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered;
Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.

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Tulsa. Charlotte. Terence Crutcher. Keith Lamont Scott. These are national tragedies. It should not be a blow to anyone's pride to admit that this is shameful for every single American still lucky enough to draw breath. It should hurt our hearts as humans and as Americans. I'm embarrassed for us.

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Go to the comments and see what people who "support ALM" said

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Chilling Fan Created All Lives Matter Video

Recently we received a video made for us by a fan of our Facebook page. This video is a gripping and a breathtaking reminder just what kind of struggles and dangers police officers face in today's world. From people pulling a gun and attempting to take our lives to rushing to the scene of a horrific murder. All the way to the moment we arrive on scene and attempt to save a life.
Warning: Graphic language and content.
Upon watching the video you see the stark reality faced by law enforcement today. You see a question brought up multiple times that's been asked by millions of people. What about the black on black violence in inner cities? If black lives truly mattered to organizations like Black Lives Matter then they would be there to protest the killing of black people by other black people. But it's easier to scream racism and demand handouts.

The video accurately portrays the scenes and images officers around this nation wake up to everyday. Violence, hatred, death, destruction, and other horrific moments they'll never be able to un-see. Images that will haunt an officer for the rest of their lives.

One of the most compelling scenes in the video shows the funerals of officers and people killed in their communities. The images of families crying and little children losing their loved ones. It portrays an accurate representation of life, the death of an officer is felt just as strongly in the community as is the death of a citizen in a community.

When you have groups like Black Lives Matter who non-stop spread divisive and hateful rhetoric it's imperative that we come together and with one voice and condemn their message and unite as one people. We are all Americans and Our Lives Matter, All Lives Matter.

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Chilling Fan Created All Lives Matter Video

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Chilling Fan Created All Lives Matter Video Recently we received a video made for us by a fan of our Facebook page. This video is a gripping and a breathtaking reminder just what kind of struggles and dangers police officers face in today's world.

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Black Lives Matter Movement More Violent

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Black Lives Matter Movement More Violent

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There's no question that Black Lives Matter has become infamous in pretty much every community. It's a group that practices violence, destruction, and disruption, but defines itself by its more peaceful protests as a way to shield themselves from criticism, and claim legitimacy.

The counterargument has been a very common sense "all lives matter." This seems to anger Black Lives Matter activists to no end, seeing as how it seems to run completely contrary to their brand. Apparently, if all lives matter, then black lives are lessened in the grand scheme. This is wholly untrue, but for BLM, unless you're giving it full attention and reverence, then you're obviously a racist.

You can see a prime example of this when the Nice, France terror attack happened, and BLM became angry that the spotlight was no longer on them.

But to further highlight how illegitimate Black Lives Matter is as a movement, and how it's really just a racial bullying campaign, one YouTube user named Joey Salads conducted a social experiment with the Black Lives Matter brand, vs the "all lives matter" phrase.

In the video, Salads holds up a sign that says "Black Lives Matter" in a predominately white area. As he stands there, he asks passers by if they support "Black Lives Matter," and while some of them say yes, most of them finish by saying all lives matter. Most of them, however, feel as if the movement is wrong because it's segregating. As one of those questioned says, it makes it harder for everyone to come together as a group.

To contrast, Salads goes into a predominately black neighborhood holding an "All Lives Matter" sign. That's when things get a little violent.

As you can see, the black community did not take kindly to the "all lives matter" sign, with most of them becoming physical, and forcing him to drop the sign on the ground. Some of them attempted to chase him down, and the one friendly guy who had no violent intent warned him that he needed to leave with that sign because he was putting himself in danger.

Emotions run high when it comes to the subject of Black Lives Matter, and attempts to counter the narrative created by the movement results in consequences from those who do support it. What Salads highlights is the just how despotic the movement and its supporters have become when it comes to messaging. Even when the message is inclusive, it can't be tolerated. To them, it's black lives, or it has to go.

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Video Shows the Violent Difference Between All Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter Supporters

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There's no question that Black Lives Matter has become infamous in pretty much every community. It's a group that practices violence, destruction, and disruption, but defines itself by its more peaceful protests as a way to shield themselves from criticism, and claim legitimacy. The counterargument has been a very common sense "all lives matter."