In her interview with the New York Times, philosopher Judith Butler responds to some Americans' concerns about the Black Lives Matter movement using an argument similar to W.E.B. DuBois's criticism of the American "color line." Dubois wrote that "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line,—the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea." DuBois thought that the color-line persisted even after slavery was abolished, because black Americans were still perceived as Other in some fundamental way (and so experienced themselves as Other, too, in the "peculiar" sensation DuBois called "double consciousness"). In the same vein, Butler says, "When we are talking about [the history of] anti-black racism in the U.S., we have to remember that under slavery black lives were considered only a fraction of a human life, so the prevailing way of valuing lives assumed that some lives mattered more, were more human, more worthy... But when and where did black lives ever really get free of coercive [violence]? One reason is that it states the obvious, but the obvious has not yet been historically realized. So it is a statement of outrage and a demand for equality, for the right to live free of constraint. [It] also links the the history of slavery, of debt peonage, and a prison system geared toward the containment, neutralization and degradation of black lives, [plus] a police system that more and more easily and often can take away a black life in a flash, all because some officer perceives a threat..." Before you give your opinion on Butler's statement, you might want to re-watch these videos from class: -DuBois Biography (3 minutes - consider his debate with Booker T. Washington's "accomodationist" ideas) -Butler's Philosophy of Gender (4 minutes - is her point about "social constructs" a. true? b. applicable to race?) You might also want to check out any of these videos which provide additional background on the issue: -An interview with the Black Lives Matter movement's co-founder -Report on the Tamir Rice shooting that Butler mentions - is the forensic expert And here are two pieces of commentary, one against and one defending Butler's view: -Black Seahawks player Richard Sherman criticizes the BLM movement -ESPN's "His and Hers" hosts criticize Sherman's comments as harmful to black Americans
26 Comments
Courtney Fenty
10/2/2015 03:16:17 pm
My opinion of Butler's statement is that I agree with it fully. Some people may argue and say, why do only black lives matter? Or why can't all lives matter? The point that Butler is trying to get across is that yes, all lives do matter, so why for so many years have black lives been treated as something that doesn't matter as much as anyone else's life. The phrase "Black Lives Matter" is not only a cry for equality but also to get people to realize that for years black lives are the ones that haven't mattered. Butler also states that in a police system like today a black life can be taken away just because an officer percieves him to be of a threat. The shooting of Tamir Rice is a clear example. A child can't play with his own toy gun. The fact that the police didn't even try to figure out if the gun was real or not and just takes away a young life is truly saddening and a clear example of how racial profiling is a big problem in today's society.
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Matthew Vaderveer
10/3/2015 01:54:58 pm
“A child can’t play with his own toy gun”;
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Meghan Pawlak
10/5/2015 01:20:07 pm
It's not as if the video was crystal clear. Again the video was not in color so there was no way of knowing if the cap was on or not. Even if the cap wasn't on big adults shouldn't perceive a 12 year old small boy as a threat. They should be trained to talk a person to stop whatever they are doing that is wrong, and not make a judgement within 2 seconds.
Matthew Vanderveer
10/3/2015 01:55:41 pm
I think that the information given by Butler was misleading because she didn't in any way mention the part about the gun when she was talking about Tamir Rice. She makes it out as though some random black person was gunned down with out any reason. People reading about this occasion automatically jump to conclusions and form an opinion that there was no cause for shooting Tamir Rice. If you look at it from the police officer’s point of view it is more understandable. The only information they had gotten was that A black male person was pointing a gun at random people. This is what they mentally prepared for, they were in defense mode ready to face some one with a gun. I don't see race having anything to do with this. The officers overreacted because they were afraid of getting shot. They definitely did some things wrong and because they overreacted they shot a juvenile. In my opinion race isn't the reason Tamir Rice was shot. Im not saying that the police officers did the right thing and that they could have avoided shooting a juvenile I'm just saying that it is possible that Tamir Rice wasn't shot for the single reason that he was black.
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Makenzie Lowrey
10/4/2015 11:43:24 am
I do believe it was a multitude of things that got Tamir Rice shot, but being black was one of those reasons. I have looked it up, and yes his gun was lacking the bright orange tip. But why would the officers shoot a minor? Was he shooting people? Did they stop and ask him if the gun was real or not? Did they even consider his age? No, they killed him then left his corpse to rot on the side of the street. Would this happen to a white child? Probably not. So ask yourself, was the death of Tamir Rice necessary because of his toy gun? Is the shooting of a twelve-year-old boy justified by a missing orange tip?
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Jackie Izzo
10/4/2015 02:42:51 pm
Makenzie,
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Rachel Kline
10/5/2015 04:10:03 pm
I think that the fact that there is even a "Black Lives Matter" statement to be debated is ridiculous. There should never have been any reason for someone to feel like they could only get people's respect by saying something like this. It should be common sense to everyone that every life should matter, no exceptions. Sex, race, religion, social status, etc. should never cause someone to get less respect that someone else who is considered better than them. All people are created equally and the color of your skin is determined by where on Earth your family comes from. If you break it down to simple terms, racists are too ignorant to accept someone as a human being equal to them because they originated just a couple thousand miles away from each other. What makes someone think its ok to degrade someone else's self worth?
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Sarah Bailey Lakatos
10/5/2015 05:36:33 pm
Rachel,
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Seamus Cochrane
10/5/2015 04:37:24 pm
In her interview/article, Butler stated that some loves matter more than others, and that all lives should matter equally. This statement is profoundly true in our modern society, and I agree with it 100%. Why is it that blacks are being gunned down and strangled in the streets by the officers that should be protecting them, while our own incompetent polititions get to be protected and treated like gods on earth? I'm not saying that the government should drop everything and focus solely on the upholding of justice and the protection of the people, but they can at least do a better job of it. It's a serious problem that our society has slogans such as "Black Lives Matter". As a nation that advertises equality and "liberty and justice for all", it isn't doing a great deal to follow through on that promise. All lives matter equally, because we're all human and we're all equal.
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Jackie Izzo
10/5/2015 04:54:29 pm
I agree with Judith Butler's statement that racism still exists all over the world and racist attitudes are shown through people, social media, and even the police forces. People may argue that this is a false statement, but the story of 12 year old Tamir Rice screams racism. The poor young black boy was carrying around a toy gun on the street. I researched the topic thoroughly and found out the toy gun failed to have an orange tip showing that it was indeed fake. While looking through many youtube videos about the incident, news channels received compressed and blurred videos from the police. This tells me that the police did not want the viewers to see the reality of the video. Without mercy, horrified Tamir was murdered. I feel if this was a 12 year old white boy, the police would have thought twice about their actions towards the situation. No questions were asked or safe precautions were taken by the police. Tamir was soon shot and killed. I think the policemen responded in a more violent manner because they had racist feelings. After Tamir was killed, his sister was trying to run to his wounded side, but the police forcibly tackled her to the ground and she was handcuffed. Tamir’s 14 year old sister was trying to help her brother, but they handcuffed and forced her into a cop car. This clearly shows that there are still racist attitudes today, and that Judith Butler’s statement is correct; not all lives are equal in the world today.
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Brad Chavero
10/5/2015 08:56:14 pm
I'd just like to add on to the fact and stress that these kids were 12 and 14! 12 and 14!!! The police in such a situation had to have had more protocols to follow besides brute force, else we should be questioning all our law enforcement. The fact that such force was used points us towards these acts of unfair treatment which has caused a family's sadness and the death of a 12 year old. Racial stereotyping is most likely the issue here and it must be addressed soon before this becomes a norm in our society. Blacks in particular have gone through so much in America's history. Hopefully this trend doesn't turn into a modern harassment of their race and we are able to stop more Tamirs from during.
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Brad Chavero
10/5/2015 08:57:10 pm
*dieing
Sarah Bailey Lakatos
10/5/2015 05:31:56 pm
I agree one hundred percent with Butler's statement. I firmly believe that racism still exists today. Racism appears in different forms especially when comparing the north and the south. "Black Lives Matter" arguments shouldn't even be debated this far into our life as a country. The color of your skin doesn't determine the type of lifestyle and treatment you deserve so I don't understand why people, more specifically racists could attempt to justify their reasoning to being so cruel to a specific group who looks a little different than they do. Looks should never play a factor in the type of advantages one individual may receive over the other. Unfortunately, there are plenty of examples where people have been passed up for a job just because the way they look. Discrimination against any group whether it be race, social group, sex, or religion is unacceptable and shouldn't ever be tolerated in any society.
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Allie Talavera
10/5/2015 05:36:47 pm
I completely agree with Butler's statement on race. The Black Lives Matter movement has do with the defined color line in America which in most cases, affects how people see you. The incident regarding Tamir Rice is a clear demonstration of how much the color line has an influence on America. Although the fake gun Tamir was holding lacked the orange safety feature, he did seem posed as a threat to the police officers. As the caller said in the phone call to the police department, "its probably fake." The police officers did not take this into account when they rode up, saw the kid and fired at him. I see the color of his skin having a lot to do with his death because I believe that if it was a white boy with a fake gun sitting on the swing that the police officers wouldn't have been so quick to shoot him down. The fact that the police didn't bother to investigate if the gun was real or not is very saddening and illustrates how big of a problem race is in our society today.
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Kathleen Patterson
10/5/2015 08:29:23 pm
Allie,
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Kay Franzese
10/5/2015 06:44:24 pm
I completely agree with Butler's statement because there is so much racism in our modern day. Tamir was only 12 when he was shot by police officers. The police officers claim that he was a threat to the people in the community, but he was only playing with a toy gun. The police officers were not protecting the community; they are just racist. I think he black lives matter movement could make a huge difference in our society because it would not only give all people equality but it would make our society safer. I heard on the news that black people are scared to leave their homes because they are afraid of police that might shoot them just because they are black. Is this the society we want to live in? A society where people are afraid to leave there homes because of their color? We are all human and that is the only way we should see ourselves. We should not be seen as black, white, boy, or girl because in the end we are all just human.
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Daisy Major
10/5/2015 07:02:20 pm
I agree with Butler's statement and saying that racism still exists today. There are still ignorant and prejudice racists in the world. I personally don't understand why there should be such thing as "Black Lives Matter". People shouldn't judge anyone on the color of their skin. They should be judged on the person they are inside. It doesn't matter what race you are or how much money you have or where you live. I believe that it's sad that we have to have articles and have segments in the news on "Black lives matter". There should have never been a doubt that black lives (or any lives) didn't matter.
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Allie Talavera
10/7/2015 01:53:12 pm
Daisy,
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Biggs
10/16/2015 04:54:00 pm
It's definitely saddening that these kinds of issues are still so prominent. But Butler's argument is pretty much that there has ALWAYS been a doubt that black lives mattered as much as others in the U.S. She says, "One reason the chant 'Black Lives Matter' is so important is that it states the obvious but the obvious has not yet been historically realized. So it is a statement of outrage and a demand for equality."
Tyhler Harty
10/5/2015 07:44:12 pm
I do agree with what Butler's statement is saying, that racism is still within our modern society. An example of racism in the modern day may be the Tamir Rice shooting. What happened to Tamir Rice was that he was playing with a toy gun without the orange topper on the tip of the gun and was black. Then what happened was that a cops showed up to where Tamir was playing (which was a playground) and was fatally shot by one of the cops. What doesn't make sense about any of this is that the video footage published is compressed and has low resolution. This means that when you watch the video it has poor quality and is harder to see what is going on. What also doesn't make sense is that the police officer who shot Tamir saw him as a big enough threat to shoot to kill. Was it because the boy was black and had a toy that looked like a gun in his hands? Also could it have been that the cop was being racist and jumped to conclusions and thought the toy gun was actually a real gun.
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Suubi Mondesir
10/5/2015 08:06:35 pm
I believe that Judith Butler has many valid points concerning the issue of "Black Lives Matter". One point she made that really hit home for me was, "so if black lives do not matter they are not really regarded as lives, since a life is supposed to matter. So what we see is that some lives matter more than others, that some lives matter so much they need to be protected at all costs, and that other lives matter less or not at all". To me this point is relevant and truthful because Judith Butler is shining a light on racism and the injustices of 2015. We cannot continuously deny the simple fact that African Americans in this country are not seen as equal, but the lesser; and in some cases, even less than human. The only way to change this simple fact is to not remain ignorant to the problem, but become aware, educated and then take corrective action to find a solution.
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Kathleen Patterson
10/5/2015 08:27:36 pm
In the interview titled “What`s Wrong With ‘All Lives Matter’?” by George Yancy, Judith Butler gives shares her viewpoints on racial inequality of blacks in today's society. Her words resonated with me most when she wondered about unconscious perception, that “in the perception of the police, to be black is already to be reaching for a gun...Is the gun imagined into the scene, or retrospectively attributed to the standing or fleeting figure (and the grand jury nods, saying ‘this is plausible.’? And why [is it] when that person is down… he never stops looming as a threat to security[?]”. Similar to the way that many Americans in the New Jersey/New York area might be wary of Middle Easterner in an airport, the majority of a minority is treated as if they all were the worst of people that look similar to them. But, if the world ran like that, minds would run rampant with unjustified worries, and there would be no function to society. So if “to be black is already to be reaching for a gun”, wouldn't that be the same for whites, as many school shootings are being done by younger white men? And in Butler's view, “the grand jury nods”, as if a prejudice or stereotype justifies a brutal and medialized death. This shows that our government and society is flawed, as well as us as a people. This point is further justified as Butler states “when [one whom is being handled by force] is down...he never stops looming as a threat to security[?]”. Is this a testament to our police force`s fear of not being in control? Or rather, is it just the animalistic qualities of humanity? No matter what lies beneath this brutality, I agree with Butler and most of America in that this is a monstrosity of an issue that needs to be solved. Too much of the media and our world gives blacks a bad reputation, and that has a major negative effect on the unconscious of everyone else, and the blacks themselves, causing these major issues to sprout.
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Brad Chavero
10/5/2015 08:44:09 pm
Judith Butler makes a powerful claim that black lives do not matter equally in America today. Although this is a sad realization, I have to agree with Butler. I agree because I am in no need of an article to tell me of this issue. The news especially makes it clear with examples such as Treyvon Martin, Tamir Rice, and other black men losing their lives to police “fear” of them. Such cases, are never seen between white people so why are they so common for occurring to black males? The most accepted reason, one which I agree is that our society has yet to leave behind issues with the color line. Stereotypes of blacks with guns and weapons and being dangerous flutter the minds of too many Americans today, including our law enforcement. This is just wrong in my opinion as anyone is capable of holding and using a weapon so that same treatment of fear towards blacks should be directed at everyone else equally regardless of their skin color. Having it any other way is unjust to the people being discriminated, which sadly are the blacks, as they are targeted most by police. This just proves Butler's point even more as it shows our nation has not yet reached that historical milestone where we all view each other as equal human beings. America has defeated slavery. America has defeated civil right issues. All that remains now is to break that mentality of the color line and stop seeing minorities as the “Other”.
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Kaitlyn Viola
10/6/2015 04:01:39 am
Judith Butler makes a strong statement that contrary to seemingly popular belief, black lives matter. Butler shines light on the currently existing problem of racism with this quote. I completely agree with Butler's statement, because all lives should matter equally. We should be judged not on color, but by character. Character is something of our control, while color is not. Racism is a large problem to this day. All it takes is for someone to simply feel threatened, and lives are lost. For example, Eric Garner was tackled to the ground and killed for being accused of selling cigarettes. Whether are not he was comitting this crime, the way they treated him was completely uncalled for, and costed him his life.
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Akin Gaddis
10/6/2015 04:30:46 am
Judith Butler's statement, Why Can’t All Lives Matter, is true however, the reason the phrase Black Lives Matter is emphasized so much is to make people realize that not everyone thinks that black lives do matter. For example the shooting of Tamir Rice, the police in that situation felt that they were threatened because of the stereotypes surrounding African-American people. If the child were white I feel that the police would have handled the situation completely differently. This has nothing to do with the race of the police officers and everything to do with stereotypes about African-Americans.
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Lili Krupinski
10/6/2015 04:31:13 am
Some people in modern society think that since we don't have slaves anymore, everyone is totally equal. After all, equal legal rights means all around equality right? Wrong. Judith Butler makes really strong points on the subject Black Lives Matter. Today, blacks and white are still not totally equal. As W.E.B. DuBois puts it, there is a "color line". If a black man is walking in the street, half the time, he will be seen as a threat. But if a white man is seen on the street, he will be left alone. To me, this doesn't sound like equality.
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