In an era of intense partisanship, everything, even the movement towards racial equality, has become a political weapon. Black Lives Matter is not a political manifesto, it is a statement. It’s a statement that asserts Black America’s right to life, which has been trampled over for centuries.

A basic reflection back on history will show any person that Black people have continually been denied the same rights as others. From the mass disenfranchisement in the Jim Crow era, to the disproportionate rates of incarceration and police brutality they face now, African Americans have been continually weighed down by the unjust burdens placed on their shoulders by systemic racism. 

So why, when so much injustice has been wrought down on the Black community, is their claim to their life seen as so political and controversial? 

Why is it seen as appropriate to discount their right to humanity by pulling the knee jerk reaction saying “all lives matter”?

Claiming to be colorblind and bipartisan by showing that you believe all lives matter is contradicting everything Blacks have experienced. Believing in a colorblind society is being ignorant in the face of injustice, and doing just as much harm as the blatantly racist. 

Society cannot achieve racial equality until it is recognized that certain races face more injustice than others. White privilege cannot be dismantled until people who have it begin to use it to help those who do not.  

Human rights are not political, and it is absolutely horrifying that Black people’s right to life has been used as a pawn in a political chess game. 

Some African American people cannot go to sleep at night without fearing for their life, like Breonna Taylor. Others cannot play with toy guns like normal kids without fear of being shot, like Tamir Rice. Some African American men cannot even go running without fear of being shot, like Ahmaud Arbery. These fears may seem absurd to a white person because they are fears formed from previous experiences, experiences that a white person would never have. 

Discounting the Black Lives Matter movement, is discounting the countless victims of racial injustice. Saying all lives matter serves to silence the sheer volume of Black victims of violence and oppression. Believing the movement is political discounts the very violent environment Black people are forced to live in, solely because of their color. 

As explained in the Office of Special Counsel’s report on Black Lives Matter and its most prominent chapter, the Black Lives Matter Global Network, the phrase “Black Lives Matter” became a rallying cry for seeking justice for Black men and youth killed as a result of racism and police brutality.  

“BLM is thus an umbrella term for a constellation of ideas, objectives, and groups. There is no ‘leader’ of the BLM movement. Rather, there are numerous organizations that use BLM terminology to varying degrees, including some whose names include the phrase “Black Lives Matter,” said the report. 

The most prominent chapter of the movement, the Black Lives Matter Global Network, has never taken a political side, but has focused entirely on political advocacy. As corroborated in the Special Counsel’s report, the network started a #WhatMatters2020 campaign to register voters and increase voter turnout, but throughout it, remained bipartisan and solely focused on voter mobility.    

It should also be considered that while people can attach political tension to issues, they are not inherently political. Black Lives Matter exemplifies that, because in the current political climate the phrase has been weaponized, even though the movement and its proponents focus on bipartisan advocacy. In the case of the Hatch Act, which dictates what a teacher can and cannot support in classrooms, Black Lives Matter is “unlike campaign slogans, phrases related to issues—even politically charged issues— generally do not meet the definition of political activity,” said the Special Counsel’s report.    

Justice knows no political party, and there is never an appropriate political time to seek justice. Equality should be something we should all agree on, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, or even Communist. It’s high time that party walls are broken down, and people realize that giving BLACK people human rights is not only the right thing to do, but will progress society for ALL.