"Black Lives Matter" — the Sentence a Racist Will Not Say
"All Lives Matter" — a Copout Whose Time Has Passed
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://spectrummagazine.org/views/2020/reflection-race
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://spectrummagazine.org/views/2020/reflection-race
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In sixth grade public schools my classmate named Russell was caught chewing gum - again. This time, Miss Hynes, told him to stay after school. He was not to go home until he had written, "I must not chew gum in class - 100 times - and he did write I MUST NOT CHEW GUM IN CLASS, standing at the board. Guess what, he was caught chewing gum again the very next day. Maybe if he had written it 200 times it would have made an impression, you think?
Black lives do matter, but bullying white people into saying it doesn’t solve the problem.
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Yes Black lives do matter, but that doesn’t mean signing on to the “BLM” political movement.
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This is a gross misrepresentation, and sadly, one needed to make the rubric that
“black lives matter” as the measure of “racist”.
This is not THE story of America.
To say it is so inserts the falsehood that “black lives don’t matter”-
something i feel strongly is a lie which I do not accept nor parrot.
If my life matters-I make it so. I refuse to give someone power over me such that unless they merely -and perhaps bullied into mindlessly do so-repeat this bumper snicker mantra that in so uttering it, my life magically matters.
I beg to vigorously differ, my life matters much more than that.
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How can any American, let alone any SDA person, identify with with a self-acknowledged Marxist and Spiritist movement? Please do your homework before bringing into this forum mass media agenda PLEASE (yes redundant but necessary).
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Roy, Thanks for the article. A few remarks, perhaps insignificant ones but they address some common themes. I’m ok with a Black GC president or even a Black Jesus because being Black doesn’t mean being a descendant or product of American slavery. There are Black people from Ethiopia or Kenya or numerous other places that would be fine. Not sure just why it is but there is something unique about slave descendants in America that sets them apart, not in a good way. Rather than load the page with anecdotes to make my point, I’ll just say that my view is shaped by my life experience in working/interacting with Black people, mostly American slave descendants but not all. The “not all” group mitigates my largely negative opinion of the Black community.
During the OJ trial, I would be in one part of Los Angeles in the morning,. The White people mostly agreed that OJ was guilty. In the afternoon, I’d head down to South Central where it was believed OJ “didn’t do it,” he was being framed by “white cops.” Both communities had access to the same news, saw the same slow speed chase, admired OJ’s athletic prowess and media personality but reached opposite conclusions.
The victim you described as “sleeping in his car” stole an officers taser and fired it at him, the victim "selling loose cigarettes " resisted arrest and required restraint, Mr. Floyd also resisted arrest and required restraint. I might mention Rodney King as well. I saw the unedited version of the video, not the one usually displayed for maximum effect. He also resisted arrest. Police normally do not just kill someone or beat them for no reason. I received the worst beating of my life from a [white] police officer. I deserved it, provoked it, brought it on myself. Thankfully a [Black] officer put a stop to it.
Racism in the church is a horrible thing, no doubt; however, members of the Black community choose to belong to a denomination with a failed [Black] prophet and an influential “prophetess” named White. Really, what do you expect?
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If Black Lives mattered then All Lives would matter.
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A slogan cannot by itself convey the complete underlying sentiment it embodies. “America First!” can mean it’s in a competition to “win” or “beat” every other country? In what ways and for what reasons? Or, it can mean that we should spend every $ we have for ourselves and ignore the rest of the world? Or that we should abandon NATO or any other alliance in which we are more helpful to them than they are to us?
“Black Lives Matter” needs a little “flesh” to express its deep anger and pain. For example, two different adjectives attached to it seem to me to “make all the difference.”
Black Lives “Only” Matter? or Black Lives “Also” Matter! Can we not see the huge difference here? That’s Roy Adams message, I believe.
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I’d further suggest “If any lives don’t matter, no lives matter”
but right now this homegrown organic Golden Boy yellow
'mater~N~mayo sammich truly only matters…
‘Black Live Matter’ is a slogan that has been adopted by millions of people world wide to decry racism against black people. It is used by people of diverse political persuasion, religious belief and culture ninety nine percent of whom are not card carrying members of the Black Lives Matter movement. It is a most appropriate slogan for addressing the bigotry that is evident in the USA and many other parts of the world. That’s why Seventh Day Adventist’s can and do use the phrase.
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I’m jealous! I would love to have a really good home grown tomato to make a 'mater N mayo sammich. You must be from the south…if not, you sure sound like it!
Enjoy! 
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Racists typically do not expressly declare that they are racists. Instead, they bob and weave, deflect, and make assertions that are pretextual. We see that this has occurred in this discussion, as follows:
a. People should not say that black lives matter, because that is “bullying.”
b. People should not say that black lives matter, because the assertion is an endorsement of Black Lives Matter.
c. People should not say that black lives matter, because my life matters irrespective of what people say.
d. People should not say that black lives matter, because to do so is to smuggle in the notion that we should support Marxism and Spiritualism.
e. People should not say that black lives matter, because I have had bad experiences with black people, black people are stupid (they acquitted OJ Simpson), the blacks who were killed acted badly and therefore deserved to be killed, and a failed prophet from the past was black.
f. People should not say that black lives matter, because the phrase can be nitpicked even though we all know what it means.
Everyone is free to utter additional pretextual assertions that can be added to this list.
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I have always tried to be non racially biased, but all this rally around the Marxist radicals in BLM turns my stomach. We’re Martin Luther King alive I believe he would distance himself from this group. This group continually grabs at everything to drive a racial wedge between people. I’ve got no use for race baiters of any color. My mantra since kindergarten is “red and yellow, black and white all are precious in His sight.” I refuse to buy into this collective guilt trip that many are imposing on the rest of us. This continual carping has reached the level of pandering. The SDA Church has run into a ditch on the other side of road, trying to avoid the ditch on the wrong side of the road.
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let’s not overlook the reality that racists are often self-deceived…they truly believe they aren’t racist…
i actually believe that almost all mind-sets represent forms of self-deception…self-deception is insidious…there’s no chance it can be discovered by the self-deceived…and there’s next to no chance that the rare individual who isn’t deceived can make a meaningful impact on a self-deceived individual or group…it’s a largely hopeless problem…
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Martin Luther King, Jr. was also accused of being a Marxist radical, a communist.
Thank you for adding to my list of pretextual assertions: We should not say that black lives matter, because that saying causes a “collective guilt trip.”
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I think you summed it up rather well!
“Everyone is free to utter additional pretextual assertions that can be added to this list.”
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“We’re Martin Luther King alive I believe he would distance himself from this group.”
King was often accused of ‘communist’ ideas as a way to lessen his impact. Lets not rewrite history!
MLK - Marxist
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One big danger I see in the blm movement and influence in the church is that when they use the word “racism” they only mean white on minority racism” . However, as Christians, our issue should be with all racism. You state blacks aren’t the only group to suffer racism in the US…and to ask Hispanics. Well, I’m Hispanic and sda and I can say that I’ve never felt hated, less than, dismissed, discriminated against or the victim of racism in the US or the church. I’ve no bad run-ins with police. however I have heard MANY Hispanics in my church make blanket stereotype comments about , whites, Asians, blacks etc. is it any less offensive if the comment is coming from a minority? In God’s eyes I’d say definitely not. Speaking only of white racism will lead to minorities being racist against white people. I see it in my youth at church…they make statements like, white people are racist, white people hate us, white people think they’re better than us. To have this opinion of an entire group is prejudice…and they feel perfectly justified in saying them. The biggest problem I have with blm is that they use Some bad experiences to make people believe it’s the norm and the #1 problem in the country…when as Christians, I hope we know it’s not.
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Don’t forget the red onion with that matto and mayo sanish
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Even though I watched the video a few times, I still have not seen a Black person being executed or lynched. I saw a Black suspect refusing to cooperate with police in a lawful arrest. It so happens that Minnesota allows the type of restraint being used on Mr. Floyd in certain circumstances, even though many departments disallow it. It may turn out that what officer Chauvin did was legal and appropriate in the circumstances. The underlying health condition of Mr. Floyd, rather than Officer Chauvin’s methods, could well have been the problem.
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