Defund the Police, Blue Lives Matter, and Other Terms from the Current Civil Rights Movement
Today we are going to get a little political! You all know by now I do not shy away from tough topics and today I felt like it was time to go over some terms that are being used during the current Civil Rights movements we are having. I have had a few conversations lately that made me realize not all of these terms are being explained fully and causing confusion and anger over what they mean. A lot of frustration can come from confusion, so I am here to hopefully make things a little less convoluted!
As always, when it comes to matters of BLM and POC always defer to the Black voices in charge. I am a white woman who has no first-hand experience in racism and am simply helping to clarify what they are say8ing, but always defer to the Black voices. They know what they need.
POC- This term simply means People of Color. This encompasses anyone not white and doesn’t just apply to Black people. Many people fall under this umbrella and require assistance when it comes to social justice and systemic racism. A lot of people use it to mean Black people only when it covers many different people.
BLM- Simply means Black Lives Matter. This is a specific organization that was founded after the murder of Michael Brown in 2014. He was an 18-year-old kid who was shot because he looked like a suspect who robbed a convince store earlier in the evening. It was founded in response to the fact that so many Black people have been shot for unlawful and unjust reasons. It also came about at a time when social media was becoming such a large part of our lives that it was able to be broadcast over more than just the evening news. It has now become a slogan in general for all protests that are fighting against police brutality and systemic racism in this country.
Blue Lives Matter- This is a slogan that has been used to emphasize during the protests that cop lives matter and no violence should be done to them. While every human has ht right to live, the idea that cops are “blue lives” gives them a racial profile they do not have. Black Lives Matter is about helping black people get the human rights they deserve and protesting the racism that is in the police force, which is the driving force behind why black people are killed by cops more than white people. Blue Lives Matter is drawing a parallel to race that isn’t there. Cops choose to become cops, they are not born into it with no say or no choice. They can take off their uniform and no one would be the wiser what their profession is. Black people were born that way, have no choice, and can never quit being black. A cop could quit their job and never have to hear about being a cop ever again. They wouldn’t be persecuted for it or judged for it, but black people do not have that option. So while every human deserves to live a safe life, a job and a race are not the same thing and should be treated as such.
BIPOC- This stands for Black, Indigenous, People of Color. This is a more specific version of POC. It gives name to black people and indigenous people and then the rest are meant to fall under the POC portion. From my research, this is used usually to speak about an issue that directly affects all non-white people (housing issues, medical care, police brutality, etc.) but POC is also an acceptable term to use, and both are pretty all-encompassing. If you are white, play it correctly and if a person of color asks not to use one of these terms in regards to them, listen. Internet research only goes so far, so listen to the real people you interact with.
Defund the Police- Upfront, this seems like a harsh statement, but what it would do is just pul some funding from police departments and put them back into other organizations that can help the community and ultimately lower crime (and make police jobs easier). Governments spend an insane amount of money on their police departments while denying funds to other, more important departments in their cities. New York City spends the most annually at $5.61 billion and the city with the smallest police spending is Minneapolis with $163.2 minion. These cities also have the highest rates of police brutality against black men, and they do not put money towards things like social services, schools, and medical care. The average for money spent on social service for the whole US was $1,150 billion. This is an average and does not mean that each service in each state was appropriately allocated for. One police department in NYC was able to pull in numbers in the billions when they have a massive homeless crisis and more than half their population is living well below the poverty line. By taking some funds from police budgets, reallocating them to communities, and redefining the jobs of the police, communities would need a lot less police intervention.
ACAB- This stands for All Cops Are Bastards. Once again, this is not a literal term, but more means that all cops are part of a bastardized system. It is a shorthand to explain and communicate with other protestors and to easily tag buildings without having to explain the whole sentiment. I would like to point out here that you can love and respect a single cop, and still think the system needs an overhaul because it does. This also doesn’t mean all cops suck, it means all cops work inside of a truly racist, classist, and horrific system that needs to be changed.
Antifa- Simply means anti-fascist. It has been adopted by some radical left groups as a name when they are working to dismantle certain power structures, but there is no such thing as Antifa soldiers, agents, workers, or one massive group just called Antifa. It is not real. While I was back in the small town I grew up in a while back, several people told me about how Antifa was in the neighboring town to destroy it. This is all paranoid ramblings that have no basis in fact. Antifa is not an organization that comes in to stir up trouble and riot. If anyone (even the news) says a bus full of some kind of organization is coming to your town to take away your rights, always do a quick Google search.
All Lives Matter- I don’t think I need to explain what this means at face value, but I do feel like I need to explain why this is a ridiculous thing to say. Of course, all lives matter. Saying Black Lives Matter doesn’t mean that we want to murder everyone else and hope they suffer. It simply means that right now (and for hundreds of years) black people have been persecuted, tortured, beaten, and so many other things used against them that now is the time to dismantle the systems that continue to be racist towards black people. All lives matter is a slogan used by racist people, and if you use that slogan and are currently thinking to yourself that you aren’t racist, I have bad news for you. When there is a charity to help save the sea turtles, no one yells back that all sea life matters because they know right now the turtles need a little extra help. So if your first instinct is to say this slogan in response to BLM, then you think black lives have lesser value or that racism doesn’t exist.
All Black Lives Matter- This may sound similar to the BLM definition from above, but this one was created to specifically make sure that queer black people were not left out. Through all of the police brutality that has been occurring and the protests in response to those things, several black transgender women have been killed. Black queer people are made homeless and are killed (by others or by suicide) at a much faster rate than white queer people. Once again, this is not to say that people of the LGBTQ+ community who are white don’t deserve to be helped, but simply that black lives are being lost at a much faster rate than white ones and therefore they deserve more attention and assistance right now. In all communities, queer people seem to always be the ones who get hurt the worst, and it is no different in the black community.
Reverse Racism- This is a term white people like to throw out a lot when a black person says something negative about them or when protests like this are going on and white people feel threatened. But here is the thing; any race can be prejudiced to anyone of any other race, but racism is the system where one race can oppress another race. Black people do not have enough power in this society to oppress and take away white people’s rights. Racism only works when one group has more power than the other, which means that reverse racism doesn’t truly exist. Black people can be prejudiced towards white people, sure, but they cannot implement systemic racism that keeps people from getting jobs, healthcare, housing, and get shot in the streets for something as trivial as turning their back to a cop. So please quit using this term, because it does not exist in the way people are using it.
I hope this was helpful! I have also listed some sources below for ongoing BLM efforts and charities to don't to. See you all tomorrow for another post.
Madey
Sources: