Perceived as a threat even when unarmed or completely physically subdued, or lying in the Snuffed out all because a police officer perceives a threat, sees the threat in the person, sees the person as pure threat. We can name them, but in the space of this interview, we cannot name all the black men and women whose lives are Is not relaxed, and the man dies because he is perceived as a threat. Another man is in a chokehold and states that he cannot breathe, and the chokehold One man is leaving a store unarmed, but he is perceived as a threat. So let us think about what this is: the perception of a threat. It may be that even when a black man is moving away from the police, that man is still considered to be a threat or worth killing. Geared toward the containment, neutralization and degradation of black lives, but also a police system that more and more easily and often can take away a black life in a flash all because some officer perceives So it is a statement of outrage and a demand for equality, for the right to live free of constraint, but also a chant that links the history of slavery, of debt peonage, segregation, and a prison system When and where did black lives ever really get free of coercive force? One reason the chant “Black Lives Matter” is so important is that it states the obvious but the obvious has not yet been historically When we are taking about racism, and anti-black racism in the United States, we have to remember that under slavery black lives were considered only a fraction of a human life, so the prevailing way of valuing livesĪssumed that some lives mattered more, were more human, more worthy, more deserving of life and freedom, where freedom meant minimally the freedom to move and thrive without being subjected to coercive force. Is an astonishing example of the police murdering someone considered disposable and fundamentally ungrievable. The callous killing of Tamir Rice and the abandonment of his body on the street And when that becomes the situation, then the lives that do not matter so much, or do not matter at all, can be killed or lost, canīe exposed to conditions of destitution, and there is no concern, or even worse, that is regarded as the way it is supposed to be. To be protected at all costs, and that other lives matter less, or not at all. So what we see is that some lives matter more than others, that some lives matter so much that they need Judith Butler: Perhaps we can think about the phrase “black lives matter.” What is implied by this statement, a statement that should be obviously true, but apparently is not? Ifīlack lives do not matter, then they are not really regarded as lives, since a life is supposed to matter. One reason the chant ‘Black Lives Matter’ is so important is that it states the obvious but the obvious has not yet been historically realized.
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