31 Powerful Black Lives Matter Quotes That White People Can Use To Educate Their Parents & Themselves
Quotes to educate parents on Black Lives Matter and stop from saying All Lives Matter
Over the years, the Black Lives Matter movement has spread its message successfully and uplifted the voices of those who would have been silenced. It has also led to many Black Lives Matter quotes that are not only powerful, but also useful tools for anti-racism education.
Most media outlets like TV channels and brand accounts on social media are doing their part by giving attention to the movement. More white people are re-learning how to not be racist and doing their part not to speak over black voices.
On social media, they are also sharing resources on how to help those who have been affected and to spread awareness of other tragedies in the black community so as to not be swept under the rug.
The Black Lives Matter movement has even brought its way into conversations at home as people have to deal with their relatives, such as siblings or parents, who claim that the movement is not worth it and are prejudiced against the true meaning behind it.
This means having to hear how this isn’t going to help and that by saying “Black Lives Matter” it takes away from other races’ issues, which often leads to them saying “All Lives Matter.”
But enough is enough. Now is the best time to do your part and educate family members on what they are saying is harmful.
Here are just a few powerful Black Lives Matter quotes about the importance of the movement and quotes that prove all lives matter isn’t as helpful as people assume it to be.
Black Lives Matter quotes
1. “When people take to the streets and organize socially and politically, things change. Across the nation, people have given voice to the pain and damage that police brutality has caused. It is time for America to listen.” —Black Lives Matter
2. "Until the killing of black men, black mothers’ sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother’s sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest." —Ella Baker
3. “‘Protect and serve’ does not mean murder a black man who is not resisting arrest by kneeling on his neck for 10 minutes while he’s screaming that he can’t breathe.” —Ryan Knight
4. “If you believe in a cause, be willing to stand up for that cause with a million people or by yourself.” —Otis S. Johnson
5. “Yeah, there are no more 'colored' water fountains, and it’s supposed to be illegal to discriminate, but if I can be forced to sit on the concrete in too-tight cuffs when I’ve done nothing wrong, it’s clear there’s an issue. That things aren’t as equal as folks say they are.” — Nic Stone
6. “When the color of your skin is seen as a weapon, you will never be seen as unarmed.” —Unknown
7. “It is white people’s responsibility to be less fragile; people of color don’t need to twist themselves into knots trying to navigate us as painlessly as possible.” —Robin DiAngelo
8. "Let’s be honest. Black pain, grief and rage are not only dismissed by elected officials, our response to those feelings are also criminalised. To feel is the most fundamental human desire. Yet, we are consistently punished for expressing our feelings and desires.” —Patrisse Cullors
9. "I love blackness, it is stunning, majestic, inspiring but it is also not here to serve non-black people when it suits them via sports, music, hairstyles, entertainment etc. It should be respected in the workplace and shouldn’t be ignored when it’s crying out in fear of being killed." —Clara Amfo
10. “What the Black lives matter movement is doing is they are making it personal. They are making it hash tagged, exposing the racial injustice that continues to haunt our country in a way that you can't ignore. There is power in injustice becoming personal.” —Shane Claiborne
11. “Because, I am mad that we have another video, another article. I am mad that we now need videos, need articles, in order to validate our rage, to justify our angst, to give credence and life to the named and nameless victims of state-sponsored aggression against persons of color.” —Joel Leon
12. “The reality is this is a peaceful human rights movement led by incredibly courageous black people. I think we are demanding justice and freedom for our people.” —Opal Tometi
13. “Who the hell wants to have a police officer put their hand on them or yell and scream at them? It’s an awful experience. Every black man I know has had this experience. Every one of them. It is hard to believe that the world is your oyster if the police can rough you up without punishment. And when I talked to minority youth, almost every single one of them mentions lower-level uses of force as the reason why they believe the world is corrupt.” —Roland G. Fryer Jr.
14. “How much time will I spend finding the correct words to say that the color of a person’s skin is not justification for ending their life? And how much time will elapse until those words mean anything to the people who actually kill us?” —Kara Brown
15. “Being a black parent, especially of a black boy, comes with the added bonus of having to protect your child from a country that is out to get him—a country that kills someone that looks like him every 28 hours, a country that will likely imprison him by his mid-thirties if he doesn't get his high school diploma, a country that is more than twice as likely to suspend him from school than a white classmate.” —Jazmine Hughes
16. "You really want that utopian ideal of what our world could be? You want to be proudly and ACTIVELY anti-racist, more than fearing being called a racist? I want that for you too. If so, then do the work, educate yourself and others stand by us loudly, consistently, FOREVER." —Clara Amfo
Why saying all lives matter is offensive
17. “All Lives Matter is an ideal. Black Lives Matter is an organization & activism committed to ensuring that Black lives become a part of the ALL. #GeorgeFloyd’s last breath screams to us today that Black lives are not indiscriminately among the ALL. Do #BlackLivesMatter to you?” — ernice King
18. “We are clear that all lives matter, but we live in a world where that's not actually happening in practice. So if we want to get to the place where all lives matter, then we have to make sure that black lives matter, too.” — Alicia Garza
19. “It’s not that all lives don’t have hardship or struggle or face racism, it’s that right now we are trying to talk about black lives, a group of people that are hardly ever considered. And even during the few times they are considered if you then try to drown that conversation out with talk of all lives it feels like a deliberate act to suffocate progress.” —Donnovan Bennett
20. “We want you to acknowledge that we exist, acknowledge we’re equals, acknowledge there are perceptions, structures and systems that consistently treat us differently, and often unfairly. We want you as allies, but don’t co-opt our issues and make them something they’re not.” —Will Sutton
21. “If All Lives Matter, why is the black community continually asked to justify its anger and grief? If All Lives Matter, why does the court system continue to put the victims of racial discrimination and police brutality on trial, rather than punishing their assailants? If All Lives Matter, why do our fellow Americans continually challenge African-Americans to justify our pain instead of empathizing with it?” —L-Mani S. Viney
22. “If you argue that ‘all lives matter,’ then, all lives matter. LGBTQ+ lives matter, all POC matter, people of a lower status than you matter, people with different views than you matter. All lives matter, correct?” —Ryan Williams
23. “However, when white people enter the conversation about these critical underlying issues only to state that ‘all lives matter,’ and that ‘not all cops or white people’ engage in overt racism or police brutality, we not only minimize the broader issues at play, we actively erase the heinous acts that occurred in the first place and, in the process, mitigate our own culpability and accountability.” — Louise Flavahan
24. “Instead, it's important to understand what drives the BLM movement and how to support it — by using the phrase and standing behind what it means. It can be an uncomfortable experience for many of us, especially if you're someone that hasn't taken the time to grapple with your own role in the systemic oppression that exists in our society. But it's also an essential education, no matter where you are in your journey.” —Lizz Schumer
25. “Heinous acts of white supremacy like slavery and The Stolen Generation are very real things that happened and continue to impact Black and First Nations people today. Just because they 'feel removed' from your current day reality does not mean those communities are not still affected in a systemic and individual way.” —Sukriti Wahi
26. “In other words, when you say ‘All Lives Matter,’ you are perpetuating toxic racism and in fact causing harm. Because when you do, you’re making it harder for the rest of the country to bring about positive change. You’re broadcasting to others that change isn’t necessary when it very much is.” —Jesse Damiani
27. “The comfortable will remain comfortable – shielded from accountability, responsibility and truth — while Black and Brown Americans are regularly assaulted, denied, mocked and murdered. Y’know, as if our lives don’t matter at all.” —Dasha Kelly Hamilton
28. “The point is that American society privileges white people over Black and brown people in myriad ways, and the decades-long caustic relationship between police and the communities of color they're meant to serve is a prime example. It deserves specific, pointed, and unapologetic recognition, not artful avoidance wrapped up with derailing tactics.” —Chris Tognotti and Jr Thorpe
29. “It’s hard for anyone who’s been encouraged to take up space their entire lives to step aside. But the desire for white people to guard their privilege like a pot of gold is destructive and delusional. All Lives Matter is nothing more than an attempt to say white lives should continue to be prized above others. It’s a rallying cry for white supremacy under the guise of a Kumbaya-like inclusionary message.” —Angelina Chapin
30. “If it were actually true that we live in a world where ‘All Lives Matter,’ then that would mean saying ‘Black Lives Matter’ shouldn’t feel like an uncomfortable expression. But, because we know that Black lives do not experience equality or justice in this country, we know that all lives cannot logically matter if Black lives don’t. So, in order to make ‘All Lives Matter’ true, you would have to say ‘Black Lives Matter’ first.” — Chelsea Candelario
31. “‘Black Lives Matter’ is a reply to centuries of systemic white supremacy. On the other hand, ‘All Lives Matter’ is white supremacy’s response, when forced to defend itself, to act as if racism and its resultant effects of exploitation and inequality never really happened.” — David Madden
Isabell Tenorio is a YourTango editorial intern.