I’m going to weigh in on the recent racial turmoil by pointing out the stupidity of a puerile opinion piece by Todd Starnes at the Fox News web site (see http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/07/08/dallas-attack-pigs-in-blanket-crowd-got-what-wanted.html). He starts by saying all lives matter and he recalls how as a child in his church in the Deep South they would sing about how everyone, no matter what color, was cared for by God. The Sunday school lesson didn’t sink in too deeply for Mr. Starnes (nor for too many in the South) because he goes on to deceptively vilify blacks. When you dishonestly attack a group of people, you are clearly acting as if some people don’t deserve to be treated justly, fairly, honestly–that their lives in fact don’t matter.

Let’s start with the phrase “All lives matter.” That is in fact a laudable, morally admirable statement. However, you have to consider the context in which people are saying it. The context is that, in response to many senseless killings of blacks by policemen, the black community started promoting the “Black lives matter” slogan. This was a slogan that did not deny that all lives matter; it did not claim that only black lives matter. In response to policemen and the justice system repeatedly acting as if black lives did not matter, the phrase asserts the idea that we must as a nation start treating blacks as full citizens, deserving of justice and equal treatment under the law, that black lives matter also.

If you respond to the phrase “Black lives matter” with the phrase “All lives matter” or “Police lives matter”, you are missing the point, perhaps purposely. There hasn’t been any doubt that police lives matter because their lives and careers have been protected again and again by our justice system, even when the police were clearly acting either incompetently or murderously. You would be more accurate to say, “All lives SHOULD matter”, not “All lives matter,” because the reality is that all lives do not matter but we SHOULD work toward the goal of all lives being valued.

Starnes goes on to whine about Obama’s response to acts of violence, claiming that Obama has always urged caution and patience when a Muslim has killed Americans, but he has immediately assumed law enforcement officers were guilty. This is nonsense of course. Starnes quotes Obama saying “cops acting stupidly” and “If I had a son…” as evidence that he is no friend of law enforcement. But the fact is cops have acted stupidly and that is putting it kindly. Also note that the “If I had a son” phrase refers to the Trayvon Martin case where the killer was not a policeman, just an idiot wannabe-cop who clearly provoked a confrontation and then killed an unarmed person.

Finally, Starnes refers to some chants at some of the recent protests. In Minnesota, the protesters chanted, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon.” Starnes is horrified at this, but one of the protesters claimed it actually was more of a teasing chant that only last 30 seconds and, in support of this, a policemen on the scene responded to it with, “Everybody likes bacon. I think we can all get behind that.” In other words, if you focus on that chant, you’re not being fair. You are not looking at the complete situation, a situation that gives blacks more than ample reason to be angry.

Another chant Starnes refers to is one at a New York protest about the death of Eric Garner where some people yelled, “What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want them? Now.” Once again Starnes is being dishonest. As pointed out by Joy-Ann Reid of MSNBC, the protesters who made this chant were not with the main protest nor did they do this chant during the main protest. That is, they were a fringe group, more extreme. Starnes is deceptively using the most extreme cases in order to vilify all blacks. (See http://www.msnbc.com/the-reid-report/the-truth-about-the-dead-cops-chant)

One of the inevitable results of injustice is that you will have extremely angry people. If you are the target of their anger, of course you will want to say that any violence on their part is unjustified, illegal, and immoral, especially if you see yourself as innocent. But what are these people supposed to do when for decade after decade their rights are denied? The various civil rights movements in this country are replete with peaceful protests and with activists striving to bring about change through the legal system, and yet change comes not at all or at a snail’s pace. At some point, the more extreme of them, the less patient, or perhaps the less stable of them, will snap and perpetrate horrors on others. If you want to reduce the chances of this happening, you must actively work for a just world.

Another inevitable result is that even when a persecuted group tries to protest peacefully, there will be radicalized individuals who will see the situation as an opportunity to get revenge. For example, when a protest in St. Paul, Minnesota closed a freeway, it became a riot when certain individuals started throwing stones and other debris at the police. BLM claims these people were not part of their group, and I’m inclined to believe them. However, it would also be unsurprising if some members of BLM are willing to be violent, but at the same time you really can’t expect BLM to control every person who might show up for a protest.

Starnes of course is the kind of person who will blame all negative outcomes on the BLM movement or on black protesters in general. He will make no effort to get the facts or understand the full picture. He is more interested in keeping blacks as second-class citizens, as ones whose lives do not matter.