If you select a slogan, then you have to live with the consequences of that slogan, including how people will (mis)interpret it. Even if the original meaning of “BLACK LIVES MATTER” was simply and powerfully to insist on the intrinsic value of the lives of African-Americans, that black lives must not be taken by the police with impunity, that black lives wrongfully taken must be remembered and that justice for them must be pursued, the phrase itself is open to many different, conflicting interpretations, some much broader than others.
According to the official Black Lives Matter website, “Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes… Black Lives Matter began as a call to action in response to state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism…”
Most people who hear the BLM slogan will never visit the organization’s website. Whether the slogan should do so or not, the phrase “BLACK LIVES MATTER” naturally raises a set of questions, especially among people who are not black:
Do only black lives matter?
Do other lives matter?
Do black lives matter more than other lives?
Do black lives only matter when they are taken by whites?
Do black lives only matter when they are taken by cops?
Do black lives also matter when they are taken by blacks?
Such questions are built into the way we use language. Making an assertion calls forth, in a discerning listener, a set of questions designed to probe the validity of the assertion. If, for example, a Christian asserts that Jesus “is the Way” (John 14:6), it is not anti-Christian to then ask “What makes Jesus the way?” or “Is Jesus the only way?” or “Are there other ways?”
Rather than intending to diminish the value of black lives, people who react to the slogan “Black Lives Matter” by asserting that “All Lives Matter” may not understand the original intention behind the slogan. They may also be expressing their own understanding of the slogan as non-inclusive. It is a mistake to assume that people who have a problem with the BLM slogan are anti-black or racist.