Making All Black Lives Matter

Ransby's "Making All Black Lives Matter" is a book I believe everyone should read. She in a way tells the story of how the era of social media turned a hashtag into a movement. Ransby made it her point to break down the BLM movement for people to understand its history and importance. I love how she discusses the ways in which the movement stands for so much more than police violence towards black people. Though that is an important aspect, the roots lie so much deeper. Yes black men and women are losing their lives, but there are also families unable to gain economic support, adequate health care, and so many other systems at work against the black communities effecting their lives.
Another important topic she discussed was about being unapologetically black, but that term can only be defined by how you define blackness. The many different definitions of blackness is what works to separate us. That is how you get people who are deemed not being black enough. This can cause some separating in the communities, and in turn make the source of the movement unclear. We know from experience that when people don’t fully understand something they usually push away from it and reject it. Ransby tries to bring them back in with her explaining how the movement can only work when we come together despite our differences. 

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 3, 2019 at 2:03 PM

    I agree with Dejah's assertion that Ransby's "Making All Black Lives Matter" is a must-read. It attacks the core problems facing black lives and how police brutality and violence against African Americans are products of a much larger American system that seeks to displace and destroy black bodies and livelihood. It is important to adequately address and grieve the lives lost, but is equally important to discern how the economic and cultural institutions of the country have allowed those lives to be lost without repercussions. It is horrible that the police are permitted to act as the “judge, jury, and executioner,” as pointed out by the video Dejah and her group showed to the class, and it is crucial to not only condemn that practice but understand how it came to be authorized. As it was highlighted by Dejah and in the reading, black people are disproportionately faced with less access to healthcare, less substantial job opportunities, and inadequate education and resources. All of these factors work together to suppress black advancement, which is why the term and practice of “unapologetic blackness” is so necessary to black liberation. It seeks to articulate an affirmation and celebration of all black culture and reject the rampant marginalization and criminalization of African Americans. Tokenism and the elevation of a few black people through classist structures will not benefit the lives of most black Americans, who have been and continue to be cheated out of economic opportunities. BLM seeks to address this separation and push for all black people to deconstruct the white heteropatriarchy in order to make valuable changes that will aid the majority of African Americans.

    Hannah Flick

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