Without a doubt, we live in a more connected and shared existence. Perhaps not spiritually, but definitely in the sense that we have a broader access to the world. From this, we gain perspective to various opinions or experiences, echoing similar voices, or seeking comparatively different views. For some, this is beneficial, for others, it means that there is the possibility of unconscious insensitivity. There is a movement for racial equality. Again, we must demand that we recognise and address the systematic failure that plagues the way we treat each other. Continuous injustice must appeal to our better judgment and it is a disgrace as one humanity to allow this unanswered. We should motivate ourselves beyond sedentary apathy. We need to address, amongst many other factors, our fundamental values and explore why our lives matter. We should strive and reach beyond the empty mottos of justice and equality, and understand what it means to treat one another with human decency and respect.
It’s not enough to change policy and law. They are the fruitful results of progress, but they only hold significance, if the values they represent and symbolise are acted upon by us, by the individual in our smallest interactions. Only when these values begin to matter within our households, in our everyday conversations, do they matter anywhere else in the world. Far from being an issue about language or specific behaviour, it is about racial awareness. The awareness that while in an idyllic world, we wouldn’t have to talk about it, we would no longer attach race to the capabilities and necessarily, the identity of the elegant complexity and multitude of the human individual, but we do not live in that idyllic world. Racial irrelevance is not happening in the workplace, it is not happening in the way the police force treats individuals, and it is not in the way we treat each other. It is an awareness of the fact that we do not live alone and that our actions affect and concern others. It is taking upon the responsibility of caring about one another and wishing to do the kind thing, the decent thing, the human thing for each other.
Evolving is achieved via education, conversation, use of public opinion and political pressure, but ultimately, it is about changing our values. We begin with our children, each other, our police, our governments and leaders, those who deal with racism and those who hold racist views. I don’t believe in the act of educating and preaching to those who have different mindsets and preconceptions to us. I trust that we need a thorough examination of each other’s values. We need to converse and share, rather than place ourselves at opposite ends. It is easier to have a discussion when we get around the emotional resistance to change that comes with duality and the perception that one is right and the other is wrong. Progress is something achieved together.
That being said, I maintain that this is insufficient. We must do better ourselves, even those of us who accept that change is needed, require the will to actually put our beliefs to the test of action. I want to probe and explore further what exactly those values we hold dear are. We acknowledge black lives matter, but to get to the crux of the issue, we must flesh out, at least to ourselves, what it means, when we say black lives, or any life, matters. What does it mean to matter? Some suggest that is has something to do with just being equal in the eyes of the law, or about human rights. I suggest there is something more fundamental than that. I hold that if we don’t fully come to grips with answering these questions, it’s very hard to convince anyone, or to find any common ground to build from. Without thinking this through, black lives matter is just a slogan.
Racism is not resolved by simply acknowledging the fact that our prejudices are unfounded and we are equal. Equality is not the point of this movement, for it is a double-edged sword. We could treat each other equally well, and equally awful. By saying black lives matter, we are saying that we should be treating each other better. To say this is to accept that we are not equally worthless, but worthwhile. If what it means to matter is equality, and the reason why we should treat each other equally is because we matter, then we end up with an uncompelling circularity. The policies and laws that determine how we treat each other are based and built upon the values we assign to a human life, not the other way around. The cynical suggest that we are in fact equally worthless, judging by how we’ve treated each other, animals, our planet, our home. We are pretty awful as a species, but we could and should do better, and some of us do good to try and make things better. Our recognition of the fact that we could improve the way we behave shows that despite there is no inherent value, we create it in how we choose to act and perceive the world.
Equality, justice, values, identity, the self, are a kind of fiction, a story we tell ourselves to make sense of our chaotic spark of existence. Nonetheless, I imagine that this does not take away from what we think are valuable to ourselves, the meaning we give to our lives. Our capacity for suffering, for joy, for friendship, love, family, relationships, career, success, charity, kindness, decency, public service. I think it’s these life projects, the integrity of the human significance, that every single one of us, has the capacity to experience and to pursue these things, despite our circumstances, our differences, that we find the ultimate empathy. The things that we deem important, are important to others too. That’s why we matter, that’s the equality we are recognising in each other. We are the lives that matter, it’s about time we start acting like it.