The president of Smith College in Massachusetts apologized for her recent school-wide email saying "all lives matter" in support of the students in the campus community protesting the racially charged grand jury decisions in Missouri and New York where white police officers were not charged in the deaths of unarmed black men.
Thanks to student emails President Kathleen McCartney understands that many people take offense to the statement "all lives matter" being used instead of "black lives matter" because it minimizes the race issue in the protests.
"I regret that I was unaware the phrase/hashtag 'all lives matter' has been used by some to draw attention away from the focus on institutional violence against Black people," McCartney wrote in an apologetic email to the campus community after the backlash. "I appreciate the links to articles you sent me to make this point. I found your own words even more helpful."
The emails were posted on Smith College's website, although they did not comment on the issue.
In the apologetic email McCartney shared excerpts from some exceptionally helpful emails she received from students after her preliminary email.
"Yes it is very true that all lives matter, but it's not the value of all lives that are being questioned. Social media has taken to the hashtag blacklivesmatter because it is black lives that seem to be undervalued," one student said.
Another student explained the difference of word choice with a little more detail:
"While the idea that all lives matter is certainly true, it is especially important at this time that we, as allies in a movement for justice, remember who this movement is about. The impulse to universalize this experience of pain, so that we can all feel sympathy, is a good one. However, it also makes it easy to forget who is at the center of this struggle: black men, women, and children. It minimizes the anti-blackness of this the current situation; yes, all lives matter, but not all lives are being targeted for police brutality. The black students at this school deserve to have their specific struggles and pain recognized, not dissolved into the larger student body."
