Monday on CNN’s “AC360,” New York Times columnist and CNN regular Charles Blow was asked to react to the argument the Black Lives Matter movement and misses a point that all lives matter and shouldn’t be used as a rallying cry.
According to Blow, it’s a “great concept” but ignores the different treatments of people along racial lines.
“In general, that is a great concept,” Blow replied. “And I wish that all of America believed that all lives matter. However, what we see is disparate treatments of different segments of the population, particularly along racial lines in America, which looks like devaluation of specific segments of the population, specifically black people. And I think that until America says, in its core, that all lives matter, it is appropriate, and in fact necessary to point out the lives that America seems to value less.”
Blow went on to argue that since the government in charge in America is a reflection of the people, America is against black people because certain elements of the government don’t treat blacks equally in his view.
“I am adamant that there is this conversation always hinging around police and people of color is too narrow, that the police are simply the tip of the spear and not the spear itself, that you have to look at the entire system, you know, the state as an actor. And the state becomes us. The state becomes America. And all of America is arrayed against black people. So, you look at the disparate interactions with police, all the way to the criminal justice system, all the way to how people are sentenced — longer sentences, all the way to the death penalty itself and they’re disparate.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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