Black Lives Matter vs.

All Lives Matter

When you hear Black Lives Matter, you probably think of NFL players protesting

the National Anthem, a lot of protest and rioting in urban neighborhoods of bigger

cities, but behind these things are reasons why this movement was made in

order to get justice for African American people. To counter this is a different

movement called All Lives Matter, the movement primarily focuses on justice for

everybody rather than just African American people. If you follow with me down

below, I will give you in depth look at each of the movements that rival each

other.

Back in February of 2012, an event happened that would light the spark to start

this movement, unfortunately it would be a very tragic one for America to witness.

February 26th, 2012. Trayvon (was 17 at the time) was wrongfully murdered by

a man by the name of George Zimmerman, Zimmerman was profiling Trayvon at

the time and they both got into an altercation which ended by Zimmerman

shooting Trayvon from about 70 yards away at the front door of the house he

was staying at. Upon this tragedy happening, immediately on social media a

new hashtag sweeped the nation with it being #BlackLivesMatter. (Wiki, 2020).

The movement then began but it did not start to take action and protest until

2014, when two African American men were slain in cold blood by the police,

named Michael Brown who resided in Ferguson, Missouri and also Eric Garner

who resided in New York. With these two events happening within a month of
each other, African American people took to the streets, social media, news, etc.

They wanted to make sure justice was served for these men and that nothing like

this ever happens again, they retaliated with protests and riots in the streets to

make sure that they were heard.

With these things going on and the constant racist things that these people go

through, a couple of exceptional ladies started an organization and movement to

make sure that their people get the justice that they deserve and things won't

happen like this again. Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi then

started this established movement and organization called Black Lives Matter.

What this is essentially is a platform, political group, movement, for all kinds of

people to join to make sure that racial inequality is abolished for good and to

make sure that African American people get justice for what they are going

through. They have up to 40 sectors spread out across the United States, and

hundreds of thousands of supporters that show up to rallies, make charitable

contributions to the movement, and also make sure that all African American’s

are making sure that they are treated equally and getting justice if they deserve

it. (Black Lives Matter, 2020) . This movement has had an immense impact on

pop culture and professional sports, superstars and athletes are able to use their

platform to promote the Black Lives Matter movement and message. In the NFL,

you have either seen or heard about Colin Kapernick, he is the one that started

to kneel during the national anthem to promote Black Lives Matter, he then
started a trend around the league in which players started to do it as well. In

music you hear lyrics of a lot of famed African American talk about how opressed

they are and just want to be equals, they also talk about police brutality and racial

profiling as well.

Following all the recent events that happened following the start of the Black

Lives Matter movement, lots of cops started receiving a lot of hate because of the

couple that gave them a bad image in Missouri and New York. It is not known

who started the All Lives Matter, but it was a movement that was meant to

criticize the Black Lives Matter movement, it got really big when it was one of the

big talking points of the 2016 election. The All Lives Matter movement is more

focused on the broad spectrum of every single person getting justice, they do not

care what you are or who you are, they just want you to make sure that all lives

feel included and represented. All Lives Matter has found it’s way all around the

world and into our culture as well, back in 2016 President Donald Trump stated

that “Black Lives Matter is a divisive term that is inherently racist.” (Wiki, 2020)

People believe that they are doing the right thing when they believe in this

movement and try to promote it, the other side of this movement believes that

they are taking away value from the argument even though they are trying to

make sure that people of all kinds of people are represented.

All lives matter has made its way around pop culture, professional sports, and

politics as well. Following the 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers, lot’s of

stars took to the internet to make sure that they were heard, Max Muncy of the

Los Angeles Dodgers tweeted “All Lives Matter” in a response to these events.

Richard Sherman of the San Francisco 49ers said in an interview “I stand by

what I said about All Lives Matter, and that we are all human beings.” Famous

rapper XXXTentacion made a music video called “Look at Me” where he showed

a black individual hanging a white child to show regardless of the color of your

skin, All Lives Matter and it caused a lot of outrage because of the point he was

trying to prove. Following the 2016 shooting of the Dallas officers, protests from

both movements encountered each other, but soon after embraced each other,

an unknown person saying that “This is how you break down that wall.” All Lives

Matter is a movement meant to make sure that anybody and everybody gets the

justice that they deserve, it is not meant to be derogatory or degrading.

The music that I chose kind of really struck me when I sat down and listened to it

for the first time I knew that I would choose the song for this topic. I chose a

song from the pop genre, it is called “Glory” by Common and John Legend. This

song has a lot of meaning in it and it is very powerful to listen too. In the first

section of the lyrics they talk about how they are powerful human beings and that

when it is time to stand up and fight they will be there, for the people of the past

that have done the same thing to the people that have lost their lives to the
cause. They continue to mention that this is why Rosa Parks did what she did, to

the people in Ferguson protesting for what's right. The next section of lyrics is

the hook that gets repeated throughout the song, it talks about the day that

racism ended and everybody starts to love and appreciate each other for who

and what we are, and we will claim glory for our people that day. The next

section of the lyrics start to discuss that even in the lord’s biggest trial’s he stood

for what was right and showed his crown to the people. Then it brings it to about

100 years ago when people stood for what was right in the face of the Jim Crow

law, then lastly it says that we cannot win this war alone and that we will have to

face whatever is in front of them together, now is the time to rewrite the past and

show the world the glory that they have achieved. Then the hook is played but

then stating that the time is now for our glory to be achieved.

So the ​form ​of this song is verse and chorus, it is just basically a normal song

with nothing special done to it. The ​melody​ of this song is definitely conjunct,

the song is very empowering and build up in this are necessary, and with those

build ups they use stepwise to piece it all together, they do an incredible job

using a conjunct melody. When listening to this song you feel empowered and

proud and wanting to be able to make a difference and happy, that’s what makes

this a consonant ​harmony. Texture​ is something that this song is not lacking, it

is very full, it's full of build ups with the instruments, vocals are angel like and

powerful. Very slow but steady ​rhythm, ​its very steady throughout the whole
song including the build ups, I would say that it is indeed in duple form because

that is what I was feeling on the meter. With what I said above, I think that the

expression​ was definitely steady tempo- medium, I would say medium because

I don’t consider this song slow, it gradually gets to the medium tempo at the build

up and the peak of the song. The ​timbre​ I am getting from John Legend and

Common are very similar because they both sing in the same genre and style of

songs, they both have a warm baritone voice which is perfect for being able to

produce such a powerful and elegant song. So this song is still relatively new, it

debuted back in 2014. This song was written and specifically designed to be

used in the movie Selma, the show was very powerful talking about the history of

African American people during the Martin Luther King Jr. era. This song has had

no involvement since then except that they created a music video which is super

good to watch and it’s a feel good type of song to be proud of. John Legend and

Common created such a beautiful song to be featured in Selma, the song is

classified in the regular pop genre. They were able to do a music video of this

song but also they were able to perform this at a New York Times special

viewing.

In conclusion, I do believe that all lives matter and that’s a fact, but I also want to

make sure that people know that the Black Lives Matter movement is very

important. I do see for myself in this time in age where they are being

oppressed and racially profiled for no reason, I found a good example of how to
 describe this situation. When you break a bone and go to the doctor’s to get it

fixed, it’s like the doctor saying all bones matter, yes that may be true but that the

time you only need attention on the one that is broken. I do think that African

American culture does need that extra help because it seems like people wanna

make it hard on them. At the end of the day, all lives do matter but we need to

sometimes shift our attention to where it’s needed the most.

Bibliography (MLA)

● “All Lives Matter.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Feb. 2020,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Lives_Matter.

● “Black Lives Matter.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Mar. 2020,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter.

● Cargle, Rachel Elizabeth. “What It Really Means When You Say ‘All Lives
Matter.’” Harper's BAZAAR, Harper's BAZAAR, 16 Apr. 2019,
www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a27075028/black-lives-matter-explained/
.

● Damiani, Jesse. “Every Time You Say ‘All Lives Matter’ You Are Being an
Accidental Racist.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 7 Dec. 2017,
www.huffpost.com/entry/every-time-you-say-all-li_1_b_11004780​.

● Lopez. “Why You Should Stop Saying ‘All Lives Matter," Explained in 9 Different
Ways.” Vox, Vox, 11 July 2016,
www.vox.com/2016/7/11/12136140/black-all-lives-matter​.

● Smith, David. “The Backlash against Black Lives Matter Is Just More Evidence of
Injustice.” The Conversation, 28 Jan. 2020,
theconversation.com/the-backlash-against-black-lives-matter-is-just-more-eviden
ce-of-injustice-85587.
 ● Tedeneke, Alem, and World Economic Forum. “The Black Lives Matter
Movement Explained.” World Economic Forum, 11 Aug. 2016,
www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/08/black-lives-matter-movement-explained/​.

● Victor, Daniel. “Why 'All Lives Matter' Is Such a Perilous Phrase.” The New York
Times, The New York Times, 15 July 2016,
www.nytimes.com/2016/07/16/us/all-lives-matter-black-lives-matter.html​.

● “What We Believe.” Black Lives Matter, blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/.

I chose section number 3. I think that he is talking about society and people getting you
scared to grow up and getting you ready, and at the end of your youth you are expected
to pick a career, but yet you're still so scared of becoming an adult that you don't want
too and cant function or are able too.

I hear

drums

piano

different toned back up singers

guitar

bass

I thought that that the B section was in disjunct. I thought that the melody was nice and
smooth and catchy, I found myself kind of swaying to the music because it was very soft
and soothing.

Guitar

Bass
Drums

Singer and backup singers