In Response to "All Words Matter"

Kelly Coryell, in her essay “All Words Matter: The Manipulation behind ‘All Lives Matter,’” examines the actual versus the ostensive effect the phrase “all lives matter” has on the Black Lives Matter movement and the underprivileged lives it seeks to protect. As Coryell discusses, while apparently a more inclusive sentiment, the phrase “all lives matter” contains loaded words. In reality, these words distort the message emphasized by the phrase “Black lives matter” while ignoring the uniqueness of the prejudice faced by Black Americans and thus pointedly devaluing the life and experience of the Black American. The result of this phrase, therefore, is in direct contradiction to what it postures to do---prioritize all lives equally. Coryell posits that, as a solution, “The privileged must resist [the] unethical temptation [to maintain the status quo by holding on to their privilege] and not mistake oppression as equality” (309).

I agree wholeheartedly with Coryell. “All lives matter,” especially when said in response to “Black lives matter,” is, rather than an appeal for equality, a manipulative phrase that not only disregards the Black experience, but further proves the existence of white privilege. The phrase demonstrates the way white people are allowed the privilege to have an identity that doesn’t surround their whiteness. A common companion of the belief that “all lives matter” is the notion that all lives are equal, that white privilege doesn’t exist in our society. Proponents of this idea tend to agree that yes, some white people experience privileges relative to others, such as the availability and ease of access of quality housing in safe areas, but that other races of the same socioeconomic class as such white people also experience the same privileges. Or, on the other hand, that white people are disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis in the American South comparatively to other races (Young).

What these arguments, like that supporting “all lives matter,” fail to consider is the full story: the reason behind these statistics. To illustrate, Housing is much more available to those in America’s upper-middle class, a majority of which is white, due to the privilege of having never experienced socioeconomic oppression such as slavery, hiring discrimination, or immigration. White people are more affected by opioids in the South, but not for nearly the same reason Black people are more affected by drug use in the North. White people in the South were not systemically and societally ostracized, solely for their race, nor forced into underprivileged, often unsafe neighborhoods in which there was no infrastructural or physical protection from the dangers of drug use---the lack of which invites even further drug addiction and overdose. As Coryell puts it, “Saying ‘all lives matter’ ignores the unique discrimination only Black Americans face, simply because they are Black” (305). The blissful ignorance white Americans display when they use this phrase is both immensely damaging to the racial equality movement by dismissing the Black experience and attributed only to the privilege white people are awarded in being able to separate their race from the conversation surrounding equality, simply because they cannot fathom---nor empathize with---experiencing prejudice for the sole reason of their race.

Further, Coryell begins a conversation in her essay regarding the power of loaded language in “[distracting] us from a flawed argument,” (302) a tactic employed by champions of “all lives matter,” but also, in a horrifyingly similar fashion, by historical political figures infamous for their use of propaganda. A significant component of propaganda techniques used by Nazi Germany during World War II was their reliance on deceptive, emotionally-charged words and phrases both to appeal to the illogical, hate-fueled beliefs of their followers and to conceal their acts of genocide from the rest of the world. Like those who support “all lives matter,” Nazi propagandists used words for purportedly beneficial movements as euphemisms for acts of hate and discrimination. Neighborhoods and communities underwent “beautification” when Jewish people were evicted and sent to concentration camps, or, in other words, sent “to the East” for “labor.” The Holocaust was not mass murder, but a “Final Solution” to the “Jewish Question” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). The danger in the manipulation employed in the use of words that so misrepresent their true meanings and motivations has been proven throughout history.

In sum, Coryell’s argument that the loaded language in the phrase “all lives matter” not only creates issues because it robs attention from oppression faced by Black Americans, but because it manipulates people into maintaining the status quo of racial discrimination and silencing is a call for action against white privilege. Allowing white Americans to continue to refuse to acknowledge their privilege will only result in the perpetuation of the racial inequality America has faced throughout its history and continues to face today. The indoctrination stemming from the use of “all lives matter” is yet another excuse for white Americans to victimize themselves in an ignorant response to the real, necessary campaign for equality set forth by Black Lives Matter. As Coryell states, putting an end to the chant will advance America one step closer to “[accepting] that Black lives matter as much as white lives” (309).

Works Cited

Coryell, Kelly. “All Words Matter: The Manipulation behind ‘All Lives Matter.’” W. W. Norton, 2021, https://nerd.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/fieldguide6/EPUB/content/3.4.1-chapter13.xhtml. Accessed 9 Oct. 2023.

“Nazi Propaganda.”United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-propaganda. Accessed 9 Oct. 2023.

Young, Toby. “The Doctrine of ‘White Privilege’ Is Undermined by the Facts.” The Critic Magazine, 28 Nov. 2019, thecritic.co.uk/issues/december-2019/no-need-to-plead-guilty/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2023.