For everyone who replies to 'Black Lives Matter' with 'All lives Matter':

Our movement is not called 'Only Black Lives Matter' , because we realize that's not true. There is an implicit "too" at the end of that phrase.

No one has spent hundreds of years serving us and making us comfortable.  Our people have put our own families needs aside to sit late with white children while their parents entertained or what have you. Leaving their own sick children at home to go into work as a domestic or a seamstress,  blacksmith,  tailor or what have you...BECAUSE THAT WAS MORE IMPORTANT. My grandmother did it for years. Guess what I learned from years of watching her work her arthritic fingers to a bone for white families and coming home.to us too tired to prepare a meal?  They're superior. That family's need for my grandmother's time, is greater than ours. She never complained about it, which tells me, she probably thought the same, but would never admit it.

We're saying Black Lives Matter because at one time  [actually plenty of times ] the masses didn't agree. Special laws had to be made for blacks to be able to even be present in certain venues, vote, buy  land, love someone of another race.  Why? BECAUSE HISTORICALLY,  BLACK LIVES DIDNT MATTER.

I'm saying black Lives Matter because I drive through a town in KY 2x/ day,5 days/week where I'm not comfortable stopping for a bag of.chips or a little gas.  I was ignored as if I was invisible in that store in  October 2013, while a white man walked around me greeted the same cashier who wouldn't make eye Contact with me and paid for his gas. I was tired and had worked about eleven hours.  I was trying to make it home safely to my son, so I stopped for a Mt. Dew. I stood at that counter for 8 Minutes. Eight entire minutes. I watched the clock behind her head and she watched, whatever she was watching,  to keep from looking in my face.  That cashier NEVER acknowledged my presence.  She didn't care that I was at a gss station in the middle of basically nowhere , on a highway,  alone... yawning profusely.  She let me continue my journey without that Mt. Dew, because my life didn't matter to her. It was hard for me to type that out because I don't want to take a victim's stance in this. I just want to make it personal enough and real enough for you to maybe get the slightest glimpse of how it feels. You don't.  You couldn't.

Stop being so defensive.  Stop responding as if our cry for acceptance, not tolerance is an insult to your whiteness. We're saying Black lives matter, because when a black man who is being held on the ground by another officer,  is shot by an assisting  officer at point blank range, it feels a little like he's being viewed as an animal, not a man. It feels a little like that officer saw a wild, dog off a chain, not a frightened father of five who was caught off guard by the police approaching him after a homeless man claimed to have had a serious altercation with him, that no one else witnessed.

I will not insert how many white friends or family members I have, or how much I respect your opinions. I will not take this time to apologize for my words. I won't because the truth of the matter is, I tiptoe around white lives everyday.
I turn my music down in my car, no matter the genre when I enter certain areas. Mostly because of the looks I get from People passing by. I don't want to be stereotyped.
I watch my use of slang in casual conversation,  because I don't want someone to mistake my relaxed vernacular as uneducated.
 I walk the long away around because hearing your door locks click as I pass, makes me want to put my fist through your window, and I'm not a violent person. I don't even like confrontation.
If you've ever known me in any capacity, you know that I don't care about your race, ethnicity,  etc. If you're dumb, rude, ignorant,  etc. .. I won't like you. If you're intelligent, kind, open minded, honest, I want more of you.

Here are some things to keep in mind for now:
1.  Pro Black Lives Matter is not Anti ANYTHING except hate.
2. We're hurt and angry right now. Don't rush or downplay this pain. Let us feel through it.
3. If you don't see a problem, walk into your bathroom,  turn on the light and look into the mirror.  There's the problem.
4. We're tired of being pacified
5. We are genuinely afraid for the black men in our lives right  now.