Hashtags can be a powerful tool in this society. My Facebook and Twitter feeds are currently filled with #alllivesmatter<\/em>, #blacklivesmatter<\/em>, and now #bluelivesmatter<\/em>. I see passion and pain behind all of them, \u00a0I support all of those.<\/p>\n

The climate we live in makes me, a middle-aged, middle-class, white woman, hesitant to speak out. I feel a certain pressure that to appear “enlightened” I must declare #blacklivesmatter<\/em>. To many people \u00a0if I declare either of the other two hashtags then I am showing my “white privilege” and living in denial of the world I live in. But if I declare #blacklivesmatter<\/em> I think it sounds rather condescending coming from a middle-aged white woman who really knows nothing of what it is like to grow up black.<\/p>\n

I saw an excellent video by Trevor Noah<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0that expressed a lot of how I feel. \u00a0He talks about the premise that supporting one “hashtag” \u00a0means opposing other “hashtags”. That’s the trouble with hashtag movements. They often indicate taking a stand, and taking a stand these days usually means standing against<\/em> something. If I declare #blacklivesmatter<\/em> then it seems as if I think police brutality abounds. If I say #alllivesmatter<\/em> then it sounds like I don’t really think there’s a problem, or as has come out now “of course all lives matter but we’re focusing on black lives now”. Stating\u00a0#bluelivesmatter<\/em> puts me on the side of the police, not a bad place to be, but it feels divisive and promotes an “us” and “them” world.<\/p>\n

I hate that there is so much violent death going on. I hate that little blond girls that go missing are the ones most likely to get reported on<\/a><\/strong> in the news. I hate that it matters what race, gender identity, sexual orientation, or religion the victims are for people to care. I think murder is a hate crime – no matter who the victim.<\/p>\n

I am encouraged that out of this latest round of violence there seem to be some real movement toward unity, but I fear it won’t last. I still long for the day when we hurt and are moved for all<\/span> <\/em>tragedy, all<\/span> <\/em>murders, all<\/span> <\/em>senseless violence – that a victim’s identity would not be proclaimed as a hashtag movement – but mourned as the painful loss of one who was, and is, valuable and precious in God’s sight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hashtags can be a powerful tool in this society. My Facebook and Twitter feeds are currently filled with #alllivesmatter, #blacklivesmatter, and now #bluelivesmatter. I see passion and pain behind all of them, \u00a0I support all of those. The climate we live in makes me, a middle-aged, middle-class, white woman, hesitant to speak out. I feel …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[1562],"tags":[58,57,59],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/hashtags-e1468324192430.png","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7zbKo-FH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2585"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2592,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2585\/revisions\/2592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}