Which lives matter? - Analysis of protest signs from BLM era

drutter (69)in #racism • 2 days ago

During (and since) the Black Lives Matter protests, I collected images of signs, shirts, and banners declaring certain types of lives "matter". An analysis of the collection (from image search) summarizes the predominant social movement of the 2020s:

First and foremost, BLACK lives matter.

Of course, there are a few approved side-messages...

Ooh, getting a little specific about who the "bad guy" is.

And what we ALL must do about it...

Aka "if you're not with us, you're racist".

You must say BLACK lives matter, or you're racist. In fact, you have to be anti-white, which is often labeled "actively antiracist":

Apparently, being BIRACIAL means you matter:

Which means we're not just talking people who are "black", but also various shades of BROWN:

And let's not forget the RED (native/indigenous/aboriginal) and YELLOW (oriental) lives...

With a huge focus on the "red" (especially during the residential school graves hoax):

But it's not just those who arrived first to a place (INDIGENOUS) that matter, it's also those who are arriving now (IMMIGRANTS and REFUGEES)...

Minorities, migrants (undocumented newcomers), and queers? Signs with unusual combinations of lives that matter are pretty common. Here's one for immigrants as well as transgendered:

Come across our border and get free sex change surgery, why not?!

It's clear that if you're black and TRANS, your life reeeally matters:

And apparently you don't even have to be black, as long as you're transsexual:

Or GAY:

Another very special group is that of black women:

Actually, all WOMEN's lives matter...

And here's an odd combination:

Black lives, LATINO lives, and MUSLIM lives. That covers quite a large portion of humanity.

More than one quarter of humanity identifies as Muslim, so that's quite a lot of lives!

At 0.18% of humanity, we have the JEWS, and their lives definitely matter:

Let's not leave out the HINDUS, a further 15% of the human species:

And their neighbors the SIKHS:

As well as other subgroups of Indian people, like the DALIT:

And various others such as MEXICAN lives:

FILIPINO lives:

And anyone from ASIA:

Or SYRIAN lives:

Or Palestine:

This well-known BLM sign pretty much sums it up...

If you're black (or brown), if you're homosexual, if you're bisexual, if you're female, if you're trans, and/or if you're an illegal immigrant... then your life matters.

Summary

Taken together, the slogans popularized during the BLM years make it clear that your life matters if you identify as any of the following:

black, brown, red, and/or yellow
indigenous, immigrant, refugee, and/or minority
2SLGBTQI+
female and/or trans
south american, mexican, filipino, middle eastern, african, indian, and/or asian
muslim, jewish, sikh, and/or hindu

If you happen to be a straight white man from Europe, Russia, Canada, or USA... apparently your life doesn't matter. Furthermore, you are seen as the source of all racism, sexism, and bigotry. If you don't actively proclaim your guilt and profess to follow the decrees of the woke mob, a target is placed on your back.

That's not hyperbole, that's fact-based analysis of the prevailing beliefs and norms.

In my research for this article, I came across a photograph of some protest signs from the civil rights movement in 1970 or so. It captures what's missing from today's movement:

End racism. A message you do NOT see from the BLM crowd, ever. In fact, anyone who talks about true equality (egalitarianism) is shouted down and labeled "a Hitler".

(Not to mention the black dude with the sign proclaiming that his life matters. Fast forward to today and only black women get that privilege. It's not okay to be a man anymore.)

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed in his famous speech: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

That's the kind of anti-racism I support. Not anti-white, anti-male, anti-Christian, anti-Western, anti-heterosexual hatred disguised as justice and progress. Racial colour-blindness would tell us that ALL human lives matter.