Ever since the brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of the police, the Black Lives Matter movement has seen a dramatic resurgence, both on social media and on the American street. The movement’s titular message declares that America needs to place more value on the lives of its black citizens and no longer treat them as cheap or expendable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On its face, the message is a good one. And the rejoinder “yes, but all lives matter” is not the correct response, because it implies that the challenges black Americans face are no different than the challenges that all Americans face. That is not true. Many of our nation’s black communities are in a state of crisis, with rampant crime, chronic poverty, and other systemic problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do I believe that black lives matter? Yes, I certainly do. I also understand the need to emphasize that black<\/em> lives matter, and applaud it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But do black lives actually matter to the movement itself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What about black police and law enforcement officers? They put their lives on the line every day to serve and protect their communities. Do their lives matter too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What about black victims of black crime? In the last two weeks since the protests and riots began, the murder rate in cities like Chicago<\/a> has skyrocketed. Because of the Ferguson Effect, more blacks are being murdered, not less. Do their lives matter too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What about the tens of thousands of black lives that are aborted every year? The abortion rate among blacks is disproportionately high.<\/a> In Manhattan, more black babies are aborted than born.<\/a> Do those black lives matter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t get me wrong. I believe that the majority of supporters of Black Lives Matter genuinely have the best interests of black Americans at heart. But when you look at what the movement actually stands for, there are some glaring inconsistencies. For example, Black Lives Matter officially endorses the disruption of the traditional nuclear family.<\/a> Yet according to black activists like Candace Owens and Larry Elder, the root cause of many of the problems in the black community is black fatherlessness:<\/p>\n\n\n\n