Fixed it. As someone who works in social media, the original of the photo below is so deeply troubling that I will not even post it for reference. I edited this one because it can be used to inform others to do better.
The original also breaks flag code, but I digress. The Deep Problems with this are:
1.)The very deliberate changing of the colors of the original to be blue (fun fact police officers DON’T actually have blue skin)
2.) The small font size mentioning victims and bad cops in comparison to…
3.) The big font size focusing on “good” cops.
4.) The privileged defensive language (I can and will).
5.) The putting of victim and bad cops on the same level, in the same font size, in the same font. Beyond cringeworthy.
Apply it to your life:
Let’s say someone’s child tragically died of an illness. They’re giving a eulogy about what that child meant to them, what their life meant to them, and someone takes the microphone, with a perfectly healthy child and yells ,”MY CHILD MATTERS,” in their face. How would you feel? How would they feel? That’s what the ‘blue lives matter’ does to every person of color every single day.
All cops are not bad. But it’s not about them. It’s not about you. Policing needs to change because innocent people are being killed; innocent people who look nothing like me. If you are a cop, and you allow your people to kill people or harm minorities because of race; you TOO are a bad cop. And every person who makes excuses for people being innocently harmed, profiled, or worse, killed are just as guilty.
If your family member was killed for being a woman by a man; would someone scream in your face “MEN’S LIVES MATTER!!!!!!”? Unfortunately in today’s world, maybe, but everyone around them would see they’re wrong and stand up for you.
Race shouldn’t be different. No one doubts police lives matter. The difference is police aren’t killed for who they are, for being born, they CHOSE to be a police officer. Of course no one deserves to be killed. And that’s EXACTLY the point! Black people didn’t choose to be born into a racist society hellbent on their oppression; YET they are killed for existing with skin.
I know people who have cops in their family have good intentions and real concerns for the safety for their family members, as they choose to do a very risky job.
What you need to realize is this: for hundreds of years people of color have had their slaughter, lynching, raping, & genocide excused, as blue lives matter unintentionally does. You should never say blue lives matter, not because police officer’s lives don’t matter, of course they do, but you should never say it because that is you signing your name and legacy to a system excusing the mass genocide of people of color for being born and having skin.
. . .
For the sake of my friends, some who have become family, my nearest and dearest, and those who I don’t know, I will not allow anyone posting any blue lives matter comments on my posts or page. People of color are humans who deserve to live. Full stop. They deserve to be spared from the retraumatization of seeing this blue lives nonsense. Not on my page.
Informed Artist 