Within The Opinion Pages of “The New York Times”, George Yancy and Judith Butler held a conversation that discussed the phrases “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” while investigating the underlying message of each. The article is in the form of a conversation so Yancy poses a question and Butler responds, in turn. In this paper I am attempting to explain that, logically, Ms. Butler has a valid argument but, should everything be true, many of her beliefs have drastic implications, that many may not realize.

Yancy yields the floor to Butler by asking a question concerning the lack of police convictions, disdain towards protestors and shunning of black communities: “How does all this communicate to black people that their lives don’t matter? (2)” Ms. Butler responds in stride by asking what is implied by the statement of “black lives matter.” She answers this with a hypothetical, transitive argument about black lives. The argument begins with the initial premise that “life is supposed to matter” and continues and finishes argument by writing “if black lives do not matter, then they are not really regarded as lives. (2)” This is a complicated sentence but logically, it is valid. If black lives are not, truly, regarded as lives we can begin to understand why we are finally hearing their plea for recognition, communal understanding and fairness.

Butler then attempts to explain why the phrase “Black Lives Matter” is important by suggesting something that, if true, sheds the United States in an abhorrent light. She writes that “it states the obvious but the obvious has not yet been historically realized. (2)” If a student reads this, pauses and realizes that what she is saying has a hint of truth, the implications should cause a wave of fury to ripple through the readers’ chest. Butler is combining the historical facts of slavery and segregation, the societal status that the black individual held during our nation’s developing years and the current, biased justice system into a statement that strives to portray the necessity of realizing that black lives have, historically, literally not mattered. Butler is suggesting that the policies and national mindset of today have not, yet, changed enough to confidently say that the black community is treated as though their lives matter.

Next, Ms. Butler moves to discuss threat and the perception of threat by police officers. She ends this paragraph, strongly, by attacking the lack of law enforcement convictions following the most notorious white-on-black police shootings. She writes, “We can see the videos and know what is obviously true, but it is also obviously true that police and the juries that support them obviously do not see what is obvious, or do wish to see.” Once again, the implications of this statement are frightening, to say the least. Butler is suggesting that juries, “obviously” knowing what happened and what they should do, are intentionally choosing to ignore the life that was taken to free the officer and, ultimately, allow it to happen again.

Ms. Butler is clearly extremely passionate about her beliefs but if she is correct, America is much worse off than many people think.