The Metuchen BLM Rally, June 13, 2020 A First Response

When it was time to protest, we protested.  But when it was time to listen, I tried to chronicle the messages that were present that day.  I did not get them all, to my chagrin, but these are many of the signs that spoke at the Black Lives Matter rally in Metuchen, NJ  on June 13, 2020.

Systemic Racism is Killing Us.  Am I Next?

Black lives don’t just Matter  Black Lives Inspire.  Black Lives Spread Wisdom

Complacency=Violence

Silence is Violence

Enough is Enough

No Justice, No Peace

Say Their Names

Black Lives Matter

I Believe Black Lives Matter

Make Calls.  Write Letters for Change.  Ask Me How

Matter Is The Minimum

End White Privilege

What We Want is Justice.

Smash Racism.  Injustice Anywhere is A Threat to Justice Everywhere.

None of Us Can Be Silent

If I Hid Black Americans in My Uterus, Would Their Lives Finally Matter?

Let All Be Judged by the Content of their Character

We See You.  We Hear You.  We Stand With You.

BLM: With a list of over thirty names of those who have died

The most oft-repeated counter-sign to “Black Lives Matter” that I have seen is “All Lives Matter”.  As a tactic of counter-protest, it is rather effective.  At the very least, it dilutes the message, submerging Black Lives into the sum total of the value of human life.  At the worst, it presumes to set up a contrast.  It becomes an ‘either/or’ proposition, ‘black lives’ versus ‘all lives’.  Because there is a protest and a counter-protest, each with their own signs, the unspoken message is “pick one”.

 Several speakers at the rally addressed this concern, “all lives” versus “black lives”.  They were very straight forward in their response.  OF COURSE ALL LIVES MATTER!  What then is the connection between the two?

We were in MLK Park for the rally, a fitting location, and a sign with his words explains things most succinctly.  “Injustice Anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”  There were two versions of that sign at the rally that I saw.  One laid this out as a quote alongside a picture of the Great Man.  The other began with “Smash Racism”; which is listed above.

Yes, all lives matter.  But what I am coming to understand is that the injustice of black lives shortened far too soon by encounters with law enforcement in the present media arc, and the history of impunity where black lives were snuffed out in the domination of white supremacy, what I am coming to understand that, in the light of this violence and misery, until we TRULY understand that black lives matter, all lives are at risk.

So don't be fooled.  Until black lives receive justice, all lives are tainted by injustice.

Rev. Peter Hofstra