Black Lives Matter or Black Lives Matter Too?

Do We Need To Add “Too”?

To many, the phrase, “Black Lives Matter” is irksome. That phrase, though simple and to the point, has an undertone that suggests black lives matter to the exclusion of others, or before others. The undertone suggests “Black Lives Matter (more than others).”

I submit it is better phrased, “Black Lives Matter Too”

“Too” implies inclusion rather than exclusion, or exclusivity. The simple addition of “too” reminds all of us that injustice lies just below the surface every time we interact with other people. The “too,” reminds us that we, individually, severally, and jointly, must treat others as we ourselves want to be treated, with dignity and respect, even as the circumstances of the encounter may be less than ideal.

Matthew told of one of the encounters Jesus had where someone asked him which of God’s commands was the greatest. His answer was two-fold: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:37-40 NASB).

Challenged to define what “neighbor” meant, Jesus offered an example where ideologically like-minded people, whom one would most expect to aid a compatriot, ignored one of their own in need, but a person who disagreed on fundamental matters with the injured individual gave comfort, aid, and arranged continued care for that injured individual.

Each of us have seen that anger accomplishes little except beget more anger, resentment, and resistance. Black lives matter because they are human beings, too. Human beings possessing the Imago Dei. And human beings are to treat one another as neighbors, not necessarily always agreeing, yet always treating one another in exactly the manner in which we ourselves want to be treated. Black lives matter too.