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| Our church's Black Lives Matter banner was torn down – now we know why Our church's Black Lives Matter banner was torn down – now we know why | |
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| Last winter First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn, where I serve as senior minister, voted to hang a Black Lives Matter banner outside our building. Shortly after we hung the banner it mysteriously disappeared. We replaced it and the replacement disappeared as well. This kept happening. For months the thief was silent; there was no inkling of motive. Every Monday we would post a banner or sign, and every Sunday night, it would be removed. Then, last week, we found something new: next to the Black Lives Matter sign appeared a sign that read: “Blue Lives Matter.” | Last winter First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn, where I serve as senior minister, voted to hang a Black Lives Matter banner outside our building. Shortly after we hung the banner it mysteriously disappeared. We replaced it and the replacement disappeared as well. This kept happening. For months the thief was silent; there was no inkling of motive. Every Monday we would post a banner or sign, and every Sunday night, it would be removed. Then, last week, we found something new: next to the Black Lives Matter sign appeared a sign that read: “Blue Lives Matter.” |
| In the history of oppressed groups demanding equality, an equivalent of the 'Blue Lives Matter' sign goes up every time | In the history of oppressed groups demanding equality, an equivalent of the 'Blue Lives Matter' sign goes up every time |
| As a pastor, I first need to acknowledge the pain behind this protest of our protest. Someone who loves a police officer (or who is a police officer) feels under attack. Indeed, police are killed in the line of duty – most recently the tragedy in Palm Springs that killed two officers, one about to retire and the other a new mother just back from maternity leave. Police have dangerous jobs – willingly undertaken – and deserve great honor and gratitude for their service. We would all agree with the sign, that the lives of police matter. | As a pastor, I first need to acknowledge the pain behind this protest of our protest. Someone who loves a police officer (or who is a police officer) feels under attack. Indeed, police are killed in the line of duty – most recently the tragedy in Palm Springs that killed two officers, one about to retire and the other a new mother just back from maternity leave. Police have dangerous jobs – willingly undertaken – and deserve great honor and gratitude for their service. We would all agree with the sign, that the lives of police matter. |
| Except that it’s not that simple. To post a “Blue Lives Matter” sign next to – and in response to – a Black Lives Matter sign is not only to equate importance of police and black lives, it is to equate the need for the two signs. It is to say that the value of police officers’ lives needs proclamation just as urgently as that of black lives at this moment in history. It is to suggest that police as a class are targets of discrimination, humiliation, and violence on a par with people of color. To suggest this is to muddy the waters. There is no comparison. One third of all policemen are not incarcerated at some point in their lifetime; police do not earn wages 26% lower than their non-police counterparts; police do not need to sit their sons down for “the talk”, praying desperately that they be safe from police violence … unless, of course, their sons are black. | Except that it’s not that simple. To post a “Blue Lives Matter” sign next to – and in response to – a Black Lives Matter sign is not only to equate importance of police and black lives, it is to equate the need for the two signs. It is to say that the value of police officers’ lives needs proclamation just as urgently as that of black lives at this moment in history. It is to suggest that police as a class are targets of discrimination, humiliation, and violence on a par with people of color. To suggest this is to muddy the waters. There is no comparison. One third of all policemen are not incarcerated at some point in their lifetime; police do not earn wages 26% lower than their non-police counterparts; police do not need to sit their sons down for “the talk”, praying desperately that they be safe from police violence … unless, of course, their sons are black. |
| It is a central function of a democracy to protect the rights of the oppressed and the disenfranchised. But our ability to do that hinges on our ability to know – who exactly are the oppressed and disenfranchised? And who are the powerful? In this political season, when a straight, white, male billionaire can claim with a straight face that the system is rigged against him, it can be hard to know. And so the Black Lives Matter movement is shining a spotlight on the particular horror of racism today – especially the disproportionate violence inflicted on black men by the law enforcement and criminal justice systems. | It is a central function of a democracy to protect the rights of the oppressed and the disenfranchised. But our ability to do that hinges on our ability to know – who exactly are the oppressed and disenfranchised? And who are the powerful? In this political season, when a straight, white, male billionaire can claim with a straight face that the system is rigged against him, it can be hard to know. And so the Black Lives Matter movement is shining a spotlight on the particular horror of racism today – especially the disproportionate violence inflicted on black men by the law enforcement and criminal justice systems. |
| Look at the history of oppressed groups demanding equality, and you find that an equivalent of the “Blue Lives Matter” sign goes up every time. No sooner was gay marriage affirmed by the supreme court than “religious freedom” bills sprung up nationwide protecting anti-gay discrimination. No sooner were Jim Crow laws were abolished than New York State passed mandatory minimum sentencing for the possession of certain drugs. No sooner did we nominate the first woman candidate for president than we nominated the most flaming misogynist ever to run. These are not coincidences. They are classic backlash, sometimes violent, but often couched in genteel rhetoric that positions the dominant group as the actual victim. It is this false appropriation of victimhood that is most insidious. It gaslights the entire nation. It re-silences people just as they come out of silence. | Look at the history of oppressed groups demanding equality, and you find that an equivalent of the “Blue Lives Matter” sign goes up every time. No sooner was gay marriage affirmed by the supreme court than “religious freedom” bills sprung up nationwide protecting anti-gay discrimination. No sooner were Jim Crow laws were abolished than New York State passed mandatory minimum sentencing for the possession of certain drugs. No sooner did we nominate the first woman candidate for president than we nominated the most flaming misogynist ever to run. These are not coincidences. They are classic backlash, sometimes violent, but often couched in genteel rhetoric that positions the dominant group as the actual victim. It is this false appropriation of victimhood that is most insidious. It gaslights the entire nation. It re-silences people just as they come out of silence. |
| We took down the “Blue Lives Matter” sign. And it was not because police lives don’t matter. It was because this movement is not about police lives or any other worthy lives that also matter. It is specifically about the lives of black people – black mothers and fathers and children, teachers and attorneys, prisoners and the homeless, and yes, black police officers. To proclaim that these lives matter is to try to still the shifting sands for just a moment; to utter one simple, unassailable truth on behalf of those whose truths have been pulled out from under their feet time and again. | We took down the “Blue Lives Matter” sign. And it was not because police lives don’t matter. It was because this movement is not about police lives or any other worthy lives that also matter. It is specifically about the lives of black people – black mothers and fathers and children, teachers and attorneys, prisoners and the homeless, and yes, black police officers. To proclaim that these lives matter is to try to still the shifting sands for just a moment; to utter one simple, unassailable truth on behalf of those whose truths have been pulled out from under their feet time and again. |