Prof. Kassner: We Say 'Black Lives Matter'—Because It Needs to Be Said
August 15, 2016
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Writing in The Baltimore Sun, Joshua J. Kassner, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Baltimore and director of the undergraduate programs in jurisprudence and philosophy in the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences, says the "Black Lives Matter" movement has spurred an important conversation about race within his own family.
"Recently, I had to explain the 'Black Lives Matter' movement to my daughter," Kassner writes. "She had heard her mother and me talking about the protests across the country. She didn't understand why people were protesting, and, like many who don't understand, she asked a version of the question, 'Don't all lives matter?'
"This belief in a post-racial society is central to the criticism of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement and begins with the assumption that our social and political institutions treat all citizens equally. Sadly, this is not the reality.
"Implicit in the idea that all lives matter is that they all matter equally, and today, that is clearly still not the case. In the end, I told my daughter that 'Black Lives Matter' should be said, because—as disappointing as this may be—it needs to be said."
Read the Sun op-ed.
Learn more about Prof. Kassner and the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences.