As I stated in my piece about Richard Sherman saying that Black people should focus on black issues before social injustices, it isn’t an either/or situation.
It was also shortsighted in thinking black people can’t do two things at one time. You can try to better your community while still working on getting the police who are supposed to protect and serve to stop murdering people and getting away with it.
Michael Bennett of the Seahawks had an intelligent rebuttal to Sherman’s thoughts. Here is what Sherman had to say first and then what Bennett had to say.
https://youtu.be/d6pPH0jtc_A
While I understand what Sherman is trying to say, I think by dismissing Black Lives Matter, he becomes part of the problem not the solution. It is the same way when Charles Barkley blames black people or blamed Eric Garner for his own death. I don’t think they are saying it with ill intent, but the racists and prejudice people of the world pick up on and it gives them a platform to say..
“Look even this prominent black man thinks you guys are all thugs and troublemakers.”
That isn’t something you want, there are a lot of outstanding black people in this world and there are a lot of bad black people in this world. Same as any other race, but only black people as a whole are judged by what the bad people do.
If a white man shoots up a bunch of people, you don’t assume every white person is a mass murderer, but if a black man does something criminal, all black men become a threat to everyone, including the police just for living.
I think it is a healthy discussion, because in the end, they are just opinions and we all want the same thing.
To live in a world where if all lives really mattered the same, we wouldn’t need a black lives matter hashtag.