Which Black Lives Matter?

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

August 25, 2015

 

Why are Michael Brown and Freddie Gray household names, yet when the name Jamyla Bolden is mentioned, the response is, who?

 

Sadly, the answer is because to the Black Lives Matter folks, apparently not all black lives matter. Apparently because there is no political or financial capital to be earned, the drive-by shooting of this nine-year-old girl from Ferguson, MO is widely ignored by the main stream media which has recently kow-towed to the BLM movement.

 

Where are such provocateurs as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? Why aren’t they leading the parade fomenting the angst and demanding answers as to why this little girl was murdered while doing her homework sitting on her mother’s bed?

 

These prevaricators of racial divide were nowhere to be found following the August 18 slaying of fourth grader Jamyla Bolden. This crime was not perpetrated by police, nor did not involve questionable suspects where it would be important to shift blame to the police. Instead this was yet another black on black slaughter; another taking of yet another innocent life – a life barely started. No witnesses have come forward to identify a yet to be identified murderer.

 

The murder of Jamyla Bolden comes about 13 months after the death of Brown that left Ferguson still reeling from the aftermath and uprising of a crescendo of violence that provided for the impetus of the Black Lives Movement. This is a movement that has operated under the false pretense that blacks are constantly the victims of white police officers simply for possessing black skin. Yet, the BLM has remained virtually silent regarding the epidemic of black on black crime, often murder.

 

If black lives matter, and they do, then all black lives should matter from birth. Black lives should matter when liberals and Democrats under the Lyndon Johnson so-called Great Society made it acceptable for a welfare check to replace a father in the home and to date more than 70 percent of all black children are born to single mothers. (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_01.pdf) (Page 40; Table 15)

 

Black lives should matter when more and more liberals and Democrats oppose charter schools and school choice as black graduation rates continue to plummet and fall further behind the graduation rates of white, Hispanic, and Asian students. (http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-high-school-graduation-rates-by-race-ethnicity.html)

 

Black lives should matter when more and more liberals and Democrats support providing a path to citizenship for the between 12 and 20 million illegal aliens. Illegals are typically working illegally in the United States underselling their labor for cash under the table and creating an underclass with which poorly educated blacks are unable to compete.

 

For those who question whether there is hope in the black community, read the Dr. Benjamin Carson story.

 

And while touching briefly on the political realm, former Maryland Governor Martin O’ Malley (D) embarrassed himself when he apologized for saying “white lives matter and all lives matter” to a chorus of boos at the Netroots Nation conference in July. O’ Malley said he meant no disrespect for including white and all lives following black lives matter. Doing so was unnecessary and made him look feckless and sheepish.

 

That we as a nation have lowered ourselves to the place where a presidential candidate would apologize for saying all lives matter is disgraceful, discordant, and disrespectful of life itself. But between violence seen on television, movies, music, video games, as well as abortion on demand, including the dissemination of baby body parts to the highest bidder, it is no wonder life has lost value in more than just the black community.

 

Yes, black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter, and Jamyla Bolden’s life mattered.

 

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.