Month: July 2020

From a post on the Facebook

by L. Nicci Haynie

A few people have asked how I am being affected by the state of the racial issues in the US right now. I’ve not really been able to give a thorough answer because there’s about 400 years of information in my response. But for now, I want to talk about the lives that matter.

I recently read a post by a friend that said, “I’m starting a new movement. DLM – Dog Lives Matter…” Even writing this, my eyes get a bit teary, although I know that it was not intended directly toward me and the person doesn’t really have any malice in their nature, reading that post was no less a punch in the face.

Being a black person in America is a constant struggle to have my value recognized. Most people don’t realize how frequent and prevalent racial disparities are in our country and it’s ok, you should not have to. NEITHER SHOULD I – However, it’s pretty clear that this country was made for the white male founders. There is specific language in the constitution that denies our very humanity. While the language has been corrected in recent laws, the fact that it is there still takes away from the truth of our equal standing as people. Moreover, as people whose blood, sweat, and tears built the foundation of this potentially great nation, we deserve to be SEEN as proper and equal citizens.

When people decide that dogs, career choices (blue lives), and everyone else matters above our basic struggle to be accepted into our own society on equitable standing, is a continuation of the demeaning behaviors that have sparked these moments throughout our American history.

Detractors fight over the value of peripheral details like the violence of opportunists and reworked verbiage over whose lives matter (yes, everyone’s matter, but who continually has to remind society and PROVE that their lives and the lives of their loved ones hold value?).
People who find themselves unaffected or inconvenienced cry out “why can’t we all just get along?” We can’t because the people who have been taught that they matter less (our legislation only decided that we were full citizens sixty years ago) and are somehow unworthy of the successes that others enjoy are not buying it anymore.

As much as I love dogs (my boys are my babies), it is important that we recognize that there is a hostile environment for people of color in this nation. Before we can reach the greatness that we strive for, lives of black people must matter equally to all Americans.
I implore you: do not be part of the problem by appropriating the terminology that people of color are using to call for justice.

Black lives MUST matter.